Do not let Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Daniel Jennewein fool you.  Buffalo’s are neither cute or cuddly.

Case in point:

Nor do they smell good:

But Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? is everything that the real thing isn’t.  Very cute.  Very cuddly.  And well, okay, still a little bit smelly.  When Daniel Jennewein, the illustrator, showed me this book while at BEA this past May, I knew that I had to have a copy.  One.  It’s about a buffalo.  As shown above, my kids LOVE buffalo’s.  Two.  It’s about going to kindergarten.  A milestone that we will pass in our house in just one short year from now.  Three.  It’s totally adorable!

As expected, my little boy was very excited to discover this book and promptly sat on the couch to read it to himself.  He was engrossed from cover to cover.  A win for this mamma!

In, Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten, one little girl proudly brings her buffalo to kindergarten.  But is he ready?  Does he have his backpack?  Does he know how to use scissors?   Does he get along with his friends?  Does he resist charging and using his horns when he’s upset?  Does he share his treats?  Likely not on that last one – buffalo’s really throw up their grass in their mouths only to eat it again?  Gross!  I have to admit that I learned something new.

Not everybody is going to fit in (particularly a buffalo!) but it’s important to remember that everybody is special.  And don’t forget that cooperating and taking turns are both very big deals.  Everybody belongs in kindergarten.  In fact, it’s so great that it may be near impossible to convince your buffalo to leave.

So stinking cute!  I loved it!  My boys loved it.  If you know somebody who is off to kindergarten this year (or next like mine) then this is a must have.  Seriously.

Links of interest: Audrey Vernick website, Daniel Jennewein website,  more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Balzer & Bray.  June 22, 2010
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 006176275X
Source: Review copy sent from the illustrator (whom I met at BEA) and who is husband to Presenting Lenore (whom I consider a friend).
Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Laura, a devoted wife, mother and nurse has always been trying to get her mother’s attention.  But Helen, her estranged mother, seems uninterested in anything to do with her daughter.  Instead, she spends all day reminiscing and reading old love letters that her deceased husband wrote while serving in the Korean War and later as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War.

Helen seems only interested in the past and not what’s right in front of her nor the future.  When Helen suffers a debilitating stroke, Laura believes that she can not only make her mother happy again but also close the gap that has grown between them through the years.  Laura has never been privy to her father’s letters but with her mother unable to speak, Laura dives deep into the letters hoping that she’ll finally understand her mother.  In doing so, she discovers buried family secrets and that her own buried secret is shocking similar to that of her own mother.

The story alternates between the present with Laura haggardly trying to maintain a sense of normalcy with her two young children while spending each day at the hospital taking care of with her ailing mother and in the past with Helen’s love story to Joseph, their marriage, and attempts at creating a family despite his constant overseas absences.  I do enjoy books with alternate storytelling and time lines – giving us bits and pieces, slowly revealing key plot points and character insight.

Laura’s husband, Christian is a landscape designer and I loved the references to his beautiful gardens.  Sea Escape, Helen’s home on the beach, felt very real to me.  The book has a very strong sense of place and I appreciate that.  Time as well.  Helen’s role as a mother and housewife in the fifties is strikingly different from that of Laura’s.  It’s easy to see why they so often misunderstood each other.

Ultimately, the novel didn’t live up to it’s potential.  I was bogged down with my disbelief of Helen’s and Laura’s relationship.  As this relationship is the entire basis of the book, everything else just fell for me.

Laura keeps telling herself over and over how much she loves her mother and she desperately wants to make her happy, but nothing is given to show me why she should love her mother.  While her father was alive, her mother only seemed to live for his infrequent coming homes and after he died, Helen pretty much ignores Laura for the rest of her childhood.  Although Laura is the child that Helen took years to conceive, I needed at least one moment of a good solid connection between the two to understand why it was that Laura could continue to give so much when she received so little in return.

As Laura reads her father’s letters she comes to know that both her mother and her father have kept family secrets hidden away from her.  We know that Laura has a secret of her own as well, that she wants to tell her mother before it’s too late.  Because Laura didn’t feel an immediacy to uncover these secrets, reveal her own secrets,  nor read all of her father’s letters, the book didn’t feel very tight.

Truths were revealed without the packing punch that I would expect to accompany them.  Everything was set up really well, and I imagine a second reading would show how carefully crafted Griffin’s story really is, but it lacked the emotional aspect that I would think a book like this would give.  I needed to be shown rather than told how characters felt.  I didn’t believe in the mother-daughter reconciliation (nor that of her brother’s as well) nor the emotions that they were feeling.

For example, one line from Laura: “After years of longing for her presence full and whole, I’d found her laugh, her touch, and her love.  They were hidden behind my lie.”  What laugh, what touch, what love?  I still felt as though this hadn’t quite happened yet.  Plus, I don’t think they were hidden behind Laura’s lie.  Helen emotionally abandoned Laura as a small child, years before Laura’s lie would present itself at age 17.  It wasn’t Laura’s fault, it was Helen’s fault.  Not believing how the characters felt, made it difficult to empathize with them.

I enjoyed the plot line, sense of time and place, the alternate storytelling, and the struggle to attend to an ailing family member but the characters fell flat for me.  Not a perfect read.  It was simply okay when I was hoping for fantastic. Readers who enjoy women’s fiction on the exploration of mothers and daughters may very well give this one a try. Perhaps you’ll feel differently than I.

Links of interest: Lynne Griffin website, Facebook and on Twitter. Visit TLC Book Tours for additional stops on the Sea Escape blog tour.
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster. July 6, 2010
Hardcover, 304 pages. ISBN 1439180601
Sea Escape is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

The Heart is Not a Size

Georgia has always been the reliable one.  The one who will always do the right thing.  The one who recognizes and appreciates just how much her parents love her.  On the other hand, Riley just can’t seem to catch the attention of her distracted mother.  A mother who laments that Riley is just “ordinary” or in other words, nobody special.  Riley is brilliantly artistic but it’s not enough.  A mother’s love.  That’s what she so desperately seeks and in chasing it will almost lose herself.

Georgia hopes that the Juarez trip will make a difference.  But how long can she ignore Riley’s secrets?  How long can she not speak up?  Instead of bringing the two of them closer together, their summer together may tear them apart instead.

I have to admit that the beauty of Beth Kephart’s writing was so beautiful and poignant that I found it almost distracting to the story.  I kept stopping and reading paragraphs again or deconstructing sentences.  I feel as though I could open any page and find a gorgeously written passage.

Later that night I woke up sweating from a dream, those black wings inside my rib cage beating, my mother’s words – Apply your intelligence to every living thing – snaking through my blood.  Because again my heart knew what my mind had avoided:  Juarez was probably a hare-brained scheme; what were the chances – really – that I’d fly all the way there and come home stronger?  I fought with the dark to free myself from my bed, struggled to wrest the weight from my chest.  It was after two, and the house was quiet, and I headed for the stairs, my right fist against my heart to quiet the fury, to survive it.  I needed the night beyond, which finally I reached, stumbling out onto the porch and into the streets and heading for the fairgrounds, which were empty now, the horses long since talked back into their trailers and driving off, Riley’s stories floating somewhere in the caverns of their heads.  I hadn’t had a panic attack in two months.  Each one was bigger than the last.

We find out the heart only by dismantling what the heart knows.

The words are from a poem Jack Gilbert wrote and Mr. Buzzy read toward the end of my sophomore year, when I finally stopped minding the class so much and settles in to learn.  I walked the streets that night with that line in my head – walked until I could breathe again and stand up straight without collapsing.  I was going to Juarez because I needed some perspective, some place where I could let the big bird free.  My head knew things that my heart didn’t yet.  I was privileged.  I was smart.  I had a future.  It was time to believe in myself.

I LOVED the creativity of the characters. Riley through her art endeavors, painting, jewelry making. Georgia through the lens of the camera. I was able to identify with the need for Georgia to take photographs. While I sometimes had a difficult time remembering the side characters, I felt that I got an immediate sense of both Riley and Georgia and through their parents, a solid background of how they were both approaching their upcoming Juarez trip. The sense of place was also very strong. And one can’t help but love the children of Juarez after Kephart’s lovely descriptions.

This is a book that I could tell the author poured her soul into. One that was crafted with love and care. And from the end result – a poetic, layered, and thoughtful story that doesn’t back off from issues affecting teens – it shows.

Links of interest: Beth Kephart blog, The Heart is Not a Size resource blog, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Harper Teen.  March 30, 2010
Hardcover, 256 pages. ISBN 0061470481
Source copy: Review copy
The Heart is Not a Size is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

After growing up in Houston, Texas, Sarah Harper finds herself transplanted to Manhattan and is doing well in in her advertising career.  But one stupid decision changes it all, she forwards an inappropriate email to all of her co-workers, and is suddenly out of a job and has a lot of time on her hands.  So what better thing to do than go back home to visit her sister Mackie for Thanksgiving?

But what was going to be a simple vacation turns into something much longer as Sarah learns that Mackie has given up on having a baby due to infertility.  Sarah puts forth a plan that nobody can resist and that will change them all forever, sometimes not always for the better.

But the storyline, of course, isn’t so simple.  Memories of her deceased mother, reconnecting with her father whom announces he’s getting remarried and avoiding the hot ex-boyfriend whom she dumped horribly in high school play a role as she rediscovers who she is.  Add to that a new job at a non-profit which will literally put her on top of a library roof by herself for 102 hours, and there is plenty to keep the reader engaged.

This is a story about relationships.  With sisters, with friends, with parents, with co-workers and most important, with oneself.  Katherine Center has a way of writing that just pulls you into the story and you have to remember to stop and breathe every once in a while.  Or at the very least see if your kids have destroyed your house while you were previously engaged.  She’s just so darn good at what she does!

These characters were real and flawed.  Oh, there were times, when I wanted to say, “Sarah!  Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!”  But the beauty of the story is that Sarah is full of so many good intentions that she acts impulsively.  We, the reader, have the benefit of watching Sarah as she journeys on a very steep learning curve.  And Sarah certainly makes the journey well worth watching.

Those who go into this book expecting a quick, light read full of chuckles will find just that, but ultimately, will be surprised with the depth of emotion, story, and characters that labels Katherine Center has an author who has seemingly created a genre all her own.

And I LOVE the videos that Katherine makes.  Check these three out.  And tell me, how can you not help loving her!

The first ends with these words: “Your time is now. To be fearlessly resilient. To rebound with purpose and power. To lead with intention. To discover what you want – and go get it.” Powerful.

This video makes me want to get up, move around, and features words from Get Lucky:

And last, a video about sisters. A very appropriate celebration of Get Lucky:

Seriously, don’t skip them!  Already waiting anxiously for Katherine’s next book and passing off my copy of Get Lucky to everybody in my book club, who all audibly gasped when I mentioned her new book was out.

Links of interest: Today’s post is in conjugation with Katherine’s TLC blog tour, more blogger reviews, Katherine’s website, my book review of Everyone is Beautiful, The Bright Side of Disaster, my author interview with Katherine, Nikki’sguest post interview with Katherine, and let’s not forget her awesome soup.
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Ballantine Books. April 6 2010.
Paperback, 288 pages. ISBN 0345507916
Get Lucky is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

But then I remembered that buried deep in my journal are four poems that I wrote when I was eight years old. Yes, EIGHT. And sadly, the only four poems which I believe I have ever written. I could only remember that one was about a witch (it was around Halloween time). So I dug them out to share with you.  All seemed rather tame until I got to the last one . . .

My Cat Wondered:

I Saw a Ghost:

Witchs Witchs:

Please Don’t Go Away:

I don’t know about you but that was some talent I had back then! *wondering if I still have the magic touch*

Follow the entire National Poetry Month Blog Tour at Serena’s including Sherry at Semicolon who is also posting today.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

But here’s four things I’ve learned as a parent navigating the world of non-fiction for very young children.

Take a cue from their current interests!

My kids get really excited when we get a book that they currently have an obsession over.  And what kid doesn’t have an obsession?  Cars? Trucks?  Tractors?  My boys love to point out every single piece of construction and farming equipment that they see.  We called every single one a tractor.  But obviously, they aren’t all called tractors.  Solution?  Hello library!  And hello books about frontloaders, bulldozers, excavators, backhoe loaders, skid steers, power tiller, and cultivators!

My boys are also obsesses over potato bugs.  Or rolly-pollies – whatever you want to call them.  During the summer, they are always pulling up my plants and rocks to see if they can find a collection of bugs.  When we get a picture book with bugs in it, they think that’s the coolest thing ever.  Same goes for spider books.  Oh yes, and let’s not forget the worms.

My kids seem to jump from one interest to another pretty frequently (although trains seems to be the mainstay) and so we read books about their current interests while the iron is hot.

What are your kids currently learning about?

My boys love snakes.  Every time we go to the zoo, my oldest is anxious to get to the snake house as soon as possible.  So I knew the library program with snakes that they could pet would be a huge hit. And it was! To the point that I have to remind the kids that they just can’t pet ALL snakes.  After the program, we picked up a couple of the snake books that they had on display (thank you librarians for making my job easier and having them all pulled already!) and for two weeks those were the only books that they looked at while we were in the car.  As soon as they were strapped in their belts, it was always “Where’s the snake book?”

I’ve also taken hints from their preschool lessons and library storytimes.  This month in preschool their theme is going on a safari, so it’s a perfect time to check out all the animal books.  I’ve found that they get really excited when they learn something in more than one place.  This is especially true for my four-year-old.  Information sinks in so much better when it’s coming at him from multiple directions.

Build on events, family vacations and other milestones.

Last year, when I took my kids on their first camping trip, we read fiction camping books for a month prior to heading out.  The same principle can be applied to non-fiction.  We will soon be taking a family vacation down to Arches and Mesa Verde and now is the perfect time to check out books about rocks, lizards, and the Anasazi people.  We’ve also got a Yellowstone trip planned and I will be reading books about  the earth, nature and wild animals to my boys.  (My librarian was a bit horrified to learn I took their library books to Yellowstone last year!)

Think about what you have coming up in your life and simply pick non-fiction books around that theme.  Not only will your kids learn something but the experience will be that much more valuable to them.

Let the kids pick!

I never know what will catch the attention of my kids so I let them browse the shelves of the library freely.  Even if the text of a book will be over their head or it’s a subject that I can’t even begin to know how to teach, they like to look at the pictures.  Letting the kids know that no subject is off limits will foster a love of learning and curiosity.

As a parent, these are techniques that I’ve found helpful in reading non-fiction to my young boys.  What ideas do you have?  We would love to hear them!

Share a Story, Shape a Future Literacy Blog Tour is being hosted at The Reading Zone today. Please be sure to stop by to find some great posts relating to nonfiction and check out the entire tour this week at Share a Story – Shape a Future.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

We are nearing the end of the two week Book Blogger Convention and Book Expo America blog tour that is full of tips, advice, experiences for those who will be attending this year, and as a ill side-effect, making those unable to go really jealous.  Today is my turn in the hot seat.  Let me tell you this.  If this stay at-home Utah mom can survive her first trip to New York City on her own with only whatever fits in a backpack  then you can survive too.

So are you a book blogger heading off to BEA and Book Blogger Con this year?  Here’s my random thoughts about my trip last year.

• Make sure your blog is in tip top shape.  Look at it with fresh eyes.  Have it ready to show off.  In other words, do you really want that post to be the first thing somebody sees?  Write a sticky post welcoming new visitors to your blog.

• Do take time to meet up with people.  I got out of the Javits Center and had lunch with a publicist that I worked with and it was great to sit, relax and really talk.

• Don’t take the catalogs.  I took too many and they contributed to the weight in my box home.  And I got many of them mailed out to me afterwards anyways. And remember if you are mailing those books home, they really aren’t free.  I spent $75 to ship them home.

• Do learn how to text – something which I still don’t know how to do and regretted not knowing.

• Do bring a purse or something to put your essentials in while you are out on a night on the town  It’s not cool to go to a nightclub carrying around one of the BEA totes.

• Do fear for your lives in the taxis.  New York cab drivers drive just like his girl from Utah thought they would.

• Do collect phone numbers of people you would like to meet up with before you leave.  It is possible to go the entire convention without seeing somebody you thought you would see for sure.  I filed the numbers in my phone under BB (for book blogger) so everybody showed up together in my contact list.

• Do brand your business cards.  What I mean is does your business card match your blog?  I included my blog header seen above and my avatar.  I found that many people would say, “Oh, I know you” after seeing my card.  Branding works folks.

• Do take time to actually eat lunch.  The first day, I completely forgot and regretted it when my body began to shut down.  You can only go so far on snacks.  But be prepared.  It’s ridiculously overpriced.

• Do prepare to be EXHAUSTED.

• Do try to plan for more than four hours of sightseeing.  If you only have four hours and you are touring by yourself,  I’d highly recommend taking the sightseeing tour on one of the double decker buses. Worked out brilliantly.  This year I’m planning more than four hours to see New York City.

• Don’t take a shared shuttle (miserable experience) or taxi (too expensive) from the airport.  Take the train.  So much easier and cheaper.

• Do follow up with people when you get home.  Something that I did not do a very good job of last year.

• Don’t be scared.  If a girl like me who had never been to NYC before, braved it last year by herself and survived to tale the tale then you’ll make it too.

• Do take off your BEA badge when you leave the convention center.  I was told you make a perfect walking advertisement that you are from out of town.

• Do talk to EVERYBODY you meet while waiting in author signing lines.  Pretty much you can bet they love books.  And besides, you never know who you are standing next too.

• Do split up from your blogging buddies and take off on your own.  I found it MUCH easier to talk to people in the booths when I was by myself.

• Do take the preemptive advil.  My shoulders hurt worse then my feet.

• Do bring clothes that don’t wrinkle.  All my shirts last year were mostly polyester stuffed into my single backback and not a wrinkle at all.

• If you are bringing a netbook with a webcam make sure you have Skype installed on it.  I was able to say goodnight in person to my kids each night I was gone. It was good to see them.

• Do bring something fun to wear for a night out.

• Do attend the author breakfast’s each morning but don’t pay for the food. I found it very entertaining.

• Do take time to attend at least one panel.

• Do take pictures.

Pam from MotherReader:

Nicole from Linus’s Blanket:

Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelves:

Serena from Savvy’s Verse and Wit:

Anna from Diary of an Eccentric:

Lenore from Presenting Lenore:

Julie from Booking Mama:

Amy from My Friend Amy:

Kathy from Bermudaonion:

Dawn from She Is Too Fond of Books:

Lisa Roe, Publicist:

Stephanie from The Written Word:

Jennifer from Book Club Girl:

Alea from Pop Culture Junkie:

Steph from Reviewer X:

Anna and Serena:

Amy and Julie:

The Book Bloggers Panel:

BEAtweetup, Amy and Candace from Beth Fish Reads:

Carey from The Tome Traveller and friend:

Dawn and Nicole:

Greenhouse Night Club:

Greenhouse:

Trish winning the Kindle:

Trish, Tyler from Scholastic and girlfriend:

View from our hotel room:

• Do post those pictures on your blog afterwards.  And not a year later like me.

• Do have a fantastic time.  Meeting bloggers and other book lovers is AWESOME.

I can’t wait to attend New York City this year for the Book Blogger Convention and Book Expo America.  Do let me know if you are going!

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Jack describes himself as a criminal mastermind but with an unfortunate amount of bad luck.  He was born to scheme and spent his childhood thinking up one caper after another.  But when one caper goes too far and results in him both being a wanted man and a disappointment to his mother, Jack leaves the city for the wild west where he meets Rapunzel.  Of course, you have to check out Rapunzel’s Revenge for that adventure.

Calamity Jack picks back up with Rapunzel and Jack on their way back to the city where Jack discovers that the Giants have not only taken over the city but are also holding his mother captive as ransom.   Jack must try to make up for his past deeds, rescue the city from doom, regain his mothers trust, and not lose Rapunzel’s love in the process.

While I enjoyed Rapunzel’s Revenge more than Calamity Jack, it’s still a fun story.  Honestly, I just couldn’t get past the idea of giant ants in the story.  But that’s me talking as an adult and let’s face it, kids will think that giant ants are the most awesome thing ever!  I think I mentioned this in my Rapunzel’s Revenge review, but I’m not totally in love with the illustrations as I would have preferred cleaner and simpler lines. But as a graphic novel should, half of the story is in the illustrations and I lingered over them.

Very whitty dialouge and fun bantering with a lot of action adventure make Calamity Jack a worthy retelling of the Jack and the Beanstalk story.

I went to the launch party for Calamity Jack, so check out my post with video if you missed it!

Links of interest:  Maw Books review of Rapunzel’s Revenge, Rapunzel’s Revenge launch party, The Actor and the Housewife, Austenland, Book of a Thousand Days, and Princess Academy. Maw Books interview with Shannon and her yummy zuchinni soup.  Shannon Hale’s website, Dean Hale’s website, and Nathan Hale’s blog.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Graphic Novel
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books. January 5, 2010
Hardcover, 144 pages. ISBN 1599900769
My copy source:  purchased
Calamity Jack is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Calamity Jack, the follow-up graphic novel to Rapunzel’s Revenge (my review), written by duo married team Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrated by the ever hard working Nathan Hale (no relation) was just released January 5th.  And of course they had to party.  And of course, I had to go.  Especially if it was going to be anything like the launch party for Rapunzel’s Revenge.

Shannon and Dean Hale talked about what it was like to write the graphic novel, Nathan had a presentation about how is life was sucked away from him as he illustrated the book (a fun project – but wow – what a lot of work!).

I captured a few videos for you because I always feel so sorry for the rest of the world to not be at these awesome events.  In this first, Shannon and Dean Hale talk about the beginnings of Calamity Jack:

And I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again but Utah is home to a lot of AMAZING authors.  Shannon answers the question: What the heck is up with Utah and writers?   The voice speaking off-screen is that of Jessica Day George.  One such author.

And then the best video for last. This is why I secretly wished I lived next door to the Hales.  Would it be too stalkish for me to move? Are they fun or what?!  This is how they explain the often asked question:  What is it like to collaborate together?

And of course, Shannon and Dean signed books and chatted up a storm.

I’m digging into my copy of Calamity Jack and will have a review for you tomorrow!

Links of interest: Maw Books review of Rapunzel’s Revenge, Rapunzel’s Revenge launch party,  interview with Shannon. Shannon Hale’s website, Dean Hale’s website, and Nathan Hale’s blog.
Calamity Jack is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
Today’s post is part of the Kidz Book Buzz Blog Tour. Check out these awesome bloggers who are also participating:
Whispers of Dawn, Reading is my Superpower, firesidemusings.blogspot.com, Through the Looking Glass Book Review , Booking Mama, Cafe of Dreams, Becky’s Book Reviews, The Hungry Readers, The Friendly Book Book, My Own Little Corner of the World, Book Blather, GreenBeanTeenQueen, Book Crumbs , Abby (the) Librarian, Dolce Bellezza, Homeschoolbuzz.com, The Book Cellar, Carrie’s YA Bookshelf, Bookshelf Monstrosity, Everyday Reading, Frenetic Reader, and KidzBookBuzz.com.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

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I was always fascinated by the image of the green, crumpled elephant in Babar. Green and crumbled because,  “Alas, that very day, the King of the elephants had eaten a bad mushroom. It poisoned him and he became ill, so ill that he died. This was a great calamity.”

And that was the end of the issue. On to naming the new King who was, of course, Babar. The matter-of-fact way in which it was all dealt with was quite gratifying.

In thinking about some of my favorite picture books, I realized that many of them have that same matter-of-fact attitude toward misfortune. I mean where are Eloise’s parents? When I read Eloise to my daughters, the question never came up. Why should it when Eloise is living her life with such aplomb?

Who didn’t want to her appendix out after reading Madeline? Or, if not that, at least a broken arm and a big dramatic cast to show off at school?

Bad things happen. As a child, I found it scary, intriguing—and encouraging—when bad things happened in books. Encouraging because I felt trusted with grown-up information; yet even more encouraging was the fact that bad things happened, but I could move on. I couldn’t have put it in words, but the message was misfortune didn’t mean despair.

Now, as a grown-up writer of picture books, I wonder if we’ve gone too far in stripping “bad things” from our mainstream picture books?

In my picture book “Just a Minute” I couldn’t get away with Mom leaving 8-year-old Johnny in the big, busy ground floor of a department store under the watchful eye of “Mabel, selling socks.” The sales clerk Mabel, became Auntie Mabel, for everyone’s comfort.

Banished was even the hint of a possibility of something bad happening—which we won’t mention, because it is so horribly bad, but we all know is the barest chance our child might get kidnapped. Rather than spare my child the thought of being left to wait by themselves with Mabel selling socks (and spare myself the thought of what might happen!) I’d suggest reading “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry.

A funny, ridiculous story like this of a kidnapping gone very badly awry is encouraging in the most basic way—and that, rather than a diet of constant, unspoken fear seems much better nourishment for ourselves and our children.

In another picture book of mine, “A Christmas Crocodile,” [Maw Books review] a crocodile gets delivered to the wrong address on Christmas Eve (as if there’s a right address to deliver a crocodile on Christmas Eve…). The crocodile eats up the family’s big, elaborate Christmas. And for a while there was some discussion with the publisher of ending the book with an illustration of the family redecorating a new tree.

But I had very deliberately not gone there in my ending. The family had the best Christmas ever, but all was not restored. Sometimes something good is lost (the crocodile ate all the presents, too) but it’s fine. And David Small, the illustrator, agreed. (Little did I know at the time, what David knew about things not being restored. If you haven’t read his graphic memoir “Stitches” I’d recommend it.)

Could a story like “Sylvester’s Magic Pebble” by William Steig get published today? Sylvester turns into a rock. Our main character, a child, has disappeared, apparently died and his parents are left in mourning! Some kids’ story!

Everyone is sad, but even so, Sylvester tries to get used to being a rock. Fall comes, winter passes and in the spring, Sylvester’s parents come to the rock for a picnic. Sylvester’s father says, “Let us try to live again and be happy even though Sylvester, our angel is no longer with us.”

Sadness is acknowledged, but the story isn’t sad. Not only because the reader knows that Sylvester isn’t dead, but because of the straightforward march of the story. The voice seems to say, bad things happen. Winter comes to us all, but even so winter always turns to spring. It’s just a matter of fact.

Thank you so much Bonny Becker for being with us today courtesy of Provato Marketing.  Visit Bonny at her website as well as the Maw Books reviews and interview found at the links at beginning of article.

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