Some of the best...

I'm feeling sentimental today. We own a lot of picture books. A lot. Perhaps too many, because over half are not my favorites. I hide them if a child brings them to me to read or I force them to go choose something else. My kids read most of the books, but I am oh-so-picky when I read aloud, partially because I want to enjoy myself and partially because my kids can tell when I don't like something. They know when I am getting into the characters and letting the words roll off my tongue in a delicious, tangible way versus when I am just in a big fat hurry to be get through the book and be done.

Here are some favorites of my favorites:

 A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech (I challenge you not to love this honest, earnest principal and the poor kids in his school. And the illustrations! Check out the titles of the books they carry around. Hard Math. Really Hard Math. Ridiculously Hard Math. Math That Will Make You Cry. Math That Will Make You Die.)


Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood (Enticingly scary; Wonderfully courageous; Full of love!)


Little Oh by Laura Krauss Melmed (The love in this story is as deep and yet as light as you can get.)


Move Over Rover by Karen Beaumont (Look for the skunk!)


Kiss the Cow by Phyllis Root (This book will make you want to kiss a cow.)


The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story by Rebecca Hickox (I think this is my favorite Cinderella retelling)

Mr. Semolina-Semolinus by Anthony Manna (I think I like this one just because it is fun to say Mr. Semolina-Semolinus)


Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White (What a problem!)


Mary's Favorite Picture Book:
Marven of the Great North Woods by Kathryn Lasky


Lucy's Favorite Picture Book:
The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy


Calvin's Favorite Picture Book:
Tigress by Nick Dowson


Shaemus's Favorite Picture Book:
Too Many Frogs by Sandy Asher


Flannery's Favorite Picture Book:
Apple Pip Princess by Jane Ray


And here's your library list...
A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech
Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood
Little Oh by Laura Krauss Melmed
Move Over Rover by Karen Beaumont
Kiss the Cow by Phyllis Root
The Golden Sandal: A Middle Eastern Cinderella Story by Rebecca Hickox
Mr. Semolina-Semolinus by Anthony Manna
Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White
Marven of the Great North Woods by Kathryn Lasky
The Seven Chinese Brothers by Margaret Mahy
Tigress by Nick Dowson
Too Many Frogs by Sandy Asher
Apple Pip Princess by Jane Ray

I'm in love—

—with a new book.

I could not put this book down, starting it on Wednesday, pouring through it all day yesterday. I generally have a strict rule that between the hours of four and eight, I am nothing but a mom. I'm not a writer, I'm not a reader, I'm not anything but someone who makes food (hmm...), gives kids attention, reads to them (for them, not for me), helps with homework, plays games—someone who is completely focused on five little people. I normally don't do any reading at all until after nine at night.

But I did a lot of hiding in the bathroom yesterday. Then I hid in Calvin's room. Then I hid in Lucy's.

I could not put this book down.

Granted, I couldn't put Ruta Sepetys's first book, Between Shades of Gray, down, but this book was maybe, maybe, even better. Okay, it was better. Maybe even way better.

Out of the Easy is in some ways a rougher book than Between Shades of Gray. They are both historical fiction, the first about Lithuania in the first half of the 20th century, and Out of the Easy about post World War II New Orleans. The Big Easy. New Orleans at its roughest and dirtiest.

Josie's mother is a prostitute. Josie spends lots of time in brothels with murderers, madams, prostitutes, the mafia. Some parts of this book, the subject matter itself, might make people uncomfortable, and I would not recommend handing it off to your 14-18 year old until you've read it yourself, but Ruta Sepetys has a gift. She has many gifts, of course, including writing riveting stories full of depth and the best characters, but she also has a gift for taking the sensational and making it real. This is not a book meant to titillate or be scandalous. She handles even the prostitution delicately—you see its ugliness without having to really see anything.

I had to know what happened to Josie. I had to find out her future. I had to find out what happened to her friends. I had to know which boy she ends up with. I had to know.

The book already has two starred reviews (from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly), I'm pleased to say, but this was a five-star book for me. Pick it up when you have time to get lost in a world completely different from anything you've experienced before (hopefully!). Pick it up and rejoice that authors like Ruta Sepetys exist and they are young enough to write more!

My favorites from last year that you grown-ups might love

I have seven novels I loved from last year. They are my award winners, and I really think they have broad appeal and are worth putting on your reading list for this year. I've blogged about them, some more than once, but I wanted to record them all together, right here, so first of all, I can purchase them when the opportunity arises (I only own two of them), and secondly, so you can beat those midwinter doldrums with a fabulous book you've never read before!

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys


Seraphina by Rachel Hartman


The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron


Bluefish by Pat Schmatz


The Unfortunate Son by Constance Leeds


A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle


Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein


Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery


Oops. This is eight. And this isn't a novel. But I loved it and you should read it.

Trip Report Part One

So we went on a trip to Disney World and some good reading was done. More than that, some exciting reading was done. Let me explain.

Hilary McKay is my favorite author in the universe. I can't put into words why this is so, I only know that I identify with every one of her characters. She is the only author I reread monthly, weekly when I'm desperate for something to read. I've read everything she's written and nothing has disappointed. She has a new book coming out Binny for Short, and I cannot wait to read it.

(Dont' you love both of those covers?)
Her books are on the girly side, and I haven't really gotten any of my kids addicted to her yet. I haven't pushed it. I've just been patiently, patiently waiting.

Calvin was sharing a tent with me one night (we camped at Fort Wilderness) and didn't have anything to read. It was late, I had a lantern and was scribbling away in a notebook. I tossed him The Exiles at Home, the second book in McKay's very first series. I love The Exiles series, but it is definitely wordier than her other books, full of British terms, and very girly—the book is about four sisters.

Within five minutes he was guffawing. Guffawing is not an exaggeration. Family members in other tents trying to sleep (Sam) protested the loud laughter. But Calvin was reading about Rachel sitting on the Christmas cake and sleeping with her brand new sled in her bunk bed and Phoebe's shoe-box zoo where she imprisons family members who don't do her bidding, and he could not stop laughing.

He's already read The Exiles since we got home.

I have a convert. (Too bad the third book is called Exiles in Love. That will be harder to foist upon him, but it is the funniest, so I think I can convince him. The covers to these books are hideous, by the way, so I will not be displaying them here. The UK versions are much cuter.)

And Lucy is now reading this series:


The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Ha! At last. A child reading one of my favorite series of all time. And she loves it!!! Nothing like being stuck in a car without lots of options. (I was very sneaky and devious about what books entered the car. Books may have been switched out of backpacks without my children's knowledge. This may have happened. One cannot be sure.)

Mary and I both read this:
Skinny by Donna D. Cooner

And we both liked it. I related to much of the book which is about a girl with serious eating issues who ends up weighing 305 pounds after the death of her mother. She has gastric bypass surgery. There is always an agenda behind books like this, but the author had gastric bypass surgery herself and it was really very balanced. I really loved the voice of Skinny, the person sitting on the girl's shoulder always telling her how ugly she is. There is a moment at the end where Skinny is revealed, and I thought that was quite brilliant. Read it first, before you give it to your daughter, however, just in case you are uncomfortable with anything.

And Shaemus read this:


Nancy Clancy: Super Sleuth by Jane O'Connor

I have a bit of a love/hmmm relationship with Fancy Nancy, and I picked this up on a whim at Costco, because there were pictures on every page and it was a mystery. Shaemus was not enamored at first. "They're just looking for a snorkel and a marble," he said. And I said, "Would you rather she was solving a murder?" and he agreed, that yes, he would rather there was a murder. Clearly, life and death is more important to Shaemus than small, round hard objects and underwater gear.

But he kept on reading. And reading. And reading. Until he'd finished and wanted book #2... And Shaemus is my most reluctant reader of them all. You'd better believe book #2 is on its way.

I stayed up way too late

reading this:



The Dark Unwindingby Sharon Cameron

Now having just looked this up on Amazon, I must hasten to admit that this book seems to have a great deal of praise but no stars. It's probably not on any "Ten best of 2012 lists." I'm not sure where I found it—maybe just on the library shelves? So I'm afraid to boast too much about my love for this book, but it took me a long time to fall asleep last night because:first: I couldn't stop thinking about the book

second: I couldn't stop thinking about how I could make my current WIP (work-in-progress) more like this book (in terms of structure and characterization)

 third: I couldn't stop imagining certain scenes in my head, and, okay, most of them were romantic, but let me tell you, this was good romance. Not the kind that authors put in just to keep you breathless and keep you reading. 
 If you aren't all that into gothic, steampunk novels, never fear, neither am I. If you are into gothic, steampunk novels, you will probably love this book (I brushed past the details of the steampunk, gasworks, automata stuff—it just doesn't interest me much). If you are in the mood to read and read and not be able to stop, give this book a try!On a side note, I just found out the author of one of my absolute favorite books, The Unfortunate Son, died quite suddenly from cancer. I was so saddened by this. Both because she was obviously too young to die and she seems like such a beautiful person, and because, selfishly, I'd been hoping for another book by this amazing author.Here is a link to her webpage, and if you haven't read The Unfortunate Son—what are you waiting for?http://www.constanceleeds.com/about-the-author/