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Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #5: Katherine Arden!
by BugsAndSlugs
The fifth judge for this year's “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest is Katherine Arden, the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel, The Bear and the Nightingale. In this story of 14th century Russia, Arden’s heroine, Vasya, is a willful child who can speak to wood sprites and household spirits. Her ability is tolerated until her father marries a pious woman who detests the pagan beliefs of Vasya's people, and as the villagers turn from their old ways, the spirits that kept them safe begin to fade. Vasya soon finds she may be alone in her ability to save her family, her village, and perhaps the world.
Check out Katherine Arden’s website to learn more about her adventures in Moscow, picking macadamia nuts in Maui and the roundabout way in which she became a published author. And don’t worry, if you love The Bear the and Nightingale, it’s the first installment in a trilogy!
Stay tuned for more information about “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!
Blog Post
New Midwestern Fiction: Nickolas Butler's The Hearts of Men
by eapearce
As a Michigan native, I find it refreshing to read books set in the heartland rather than in the bustling worlds of the coasts, at least from time to time. Nickolas Butler’s first book, Shotgun Lovesongs, perfectly captured life in small-town Wisconsin and his book of short stories, Beneath the Bonfire, spanned the entire Midwest , depicting the unglamorous yet deeply moving lives of farmers, factory workers, bartenders, truck drivers, miners and their families. Both books strike an aching chord with anyone who has lived in the rural Midwest. In his newest novel, The Hearts of Men, Butler again sets readers down in rural Wisconsin, over a time period of over five decades. The book follows the lives of two men, Nelson and Jonathan, who first meet as boys at Boy Scout camp in the 1960s. Their lives take vastly different directions; Nelson fights in Vietnam and eventually becomes the director of the very same Boy Scout camp, while Jonathan becomes a successful businessman with an unhappy marriage. It’s clear that Butler writes from experience—he grew up in Wisconsin and still lives outside of Eau Claire with his family. Nelson and Jonathan seem like more than just characters, but men that he has known, or could know.
The Hearts of Men explores the influence that age-old American institutions like the Boy Scouts have on a person’s life, and deals with the moral and ethical quandaries that we all face over the course of a lifetime. The book reads quickly and smoothly, and is highly recommended by this reader for anyone from the Midwest looking for a novel about home.
Blog Post
PreK Bits - "Qu" is for QUESTIONS
by ryanikoglu
Ms. Rachel and Ms. Betsy used "Qu" for questions throughout Storytime.
DUCK! RABBIT! …"What is it?" There are two opinions.
We participated in the action rhythm "A Quooty Qua" ... to repeat our "Qu" sound.
... We changed the sound from the action rhyme "A Tooty Ta". "What does 'Quooty qua' mean?"
TOO MUCH NOISE ... "What can I do about all this noise?" Peter asks the Wise Person.
For answers to more questions, try these favorites:
WHEN The WORLD Is DREAMING ... "What do little animals dream?"
CAN ONE BALLOON MAKE An ANIMAL FLY? ... and more questions asked at the zoo.
WHO DONE IT? ... follow visual clues to find an answer.
AH-HA to ZIG-ZAG ... If you were starting an Art Museum, what would you put in it ? Here is an "Artful" Alphabet.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ...? ... things are lost?
So MANY questions !
So little TIME !
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #632 "(D)espite appearances, puzzling is not a solitary game: every move the puzzler makes, the puzzlemaker has made before..." ~ Georges Perec
by muffy
Author Caite Dolan-Leach's clever title for her debut Dead Letters * references the obvious, but also its alternate definition.
Graduate student Ava Antipova made her way home to upstate New York when news of her estranged twin Zelda's death reached her in Paris. They have not spoken for 2 years after a bitter betrayal.
Arriving at Seneca Lake where the family's failing vineyard Silenus, was located, Ava immediately stepped into caring for their ailing mother and estranged father who long ago, abandoned them for a sunnier vineyard, wealthier wife, and a younger family in California. Almost immediately, even before the Police suspected foul play, Ava began receiving cryptic emails and social media messages from Zelda.
Arranged in 26 chapters, each beginning with a letter of the alphabet and recounting the games the twins played as children, Zelda led Ava on a scavenger-hunt, delivering "a lock-room mystery with flavors of Perec", which as it became increasingly obvious, was also a taunt for the Edgar Allan Poe scholar (subject of Ava's dissertation) and the OuLiPo Movement - writers obsessed with mysteries and literary games.
"In this, her startling debut novel, Dolan-Leach nimbly entwines the clever mystery of Agatha Christie, the wit of Dorothy Parker, and the inebriated Gothic of Eugene O’Neill." (Kirkus Reviews)
For readers who enjoyed Sister by Rosamund Lupton, and The Widow by Fiona Barton.
* = starred review
Blog Post
A Coming of Age Adventure
by Lucy S
"The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is one part Quentin Tarantino, one part Scheherazade, and twelve parts wild innovation.” Ann Patchett
Hannah Tinti’s notable, gritty, first novel, The Good Thief was very well received in 2008 and those who have been waiting for more from her will not be disappointed with her second accomplishment, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley.
Samuel Hawley is a lifetime criminal who realizes he needs to change his felonious ways when his daughter, Loo, reaches adolescence and starts acting the part of a delinquent as well. Though Loo is happy to follow her father in all he does, Samuel feels compelled to settle down for her sake. When Samuel and Loo move to Olympus, Massachusetts, the town where Loo’s mother lived, Loo becomes curious about how her mother died. All Loo knows of her mother are the relics that her father carries and sets up in a shrine wherever they relocate. Loo has trouble letting go of the old, peripatetic ways and adapting to life in Olympus. “She began to dread the moves but a part of her also itched for them, because it meant that she could stop trying to fit in and simply slip into the place where she belonged: the passenger seat of her father’s truck as they barreled down the highway.”
Instead of making friends in Olympus, Loo sets out to learn more about what really happened to her mother. As she unravels the mystery of her mother’s past she becomes more deeply involved in her father’s present. Loo starts to comprehend what the twelve scars on her father’s body truly indicate about who he is and the life he’s led.
Interspersed with the chapters that tell of Loo’s adolescence and adjustment to her new home, are chapters set in earlier times that tell us of the harrowing adventures that comprise “the twelve lives of Samuel Hawley,” one chapter for each bullet that has left its mark on his scarred body. The chapters alternate between past and present in a wide setting that spans the entire United States, from Alaska to Massachusetts.
In an interview at the end of the book, Tinti explains how she created Samuel Hawley. She imagined a man blemished by bullets, and as he appeared to her bullet hole by bullet hole she created her story. Each of the chapters describing one of Hawley's wounds contains similar thematic elements. Tinti was influenced by Greek mythology and builds for Hawley a set of Herculean tasks, essentially, twelve different ways of getting shot. Loo, as she matures, is also on an odyssey. Each “first” in her life lies in a chapter sandwiched between the details of her father’s escapades. Her experiences, from her first fight, to her first crime, bring her closer to her father and to understanding the intentions of the people around her. “Their hearts were all cycling through the same madness - the discovery, the bliss, the loss, the despair - like planets taking turns in orbit around the sun.”
Tinti interweaves violence and compassion in this book that is part mystery, part quest for truth, and part love story. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is a gunslinging tale of adventure dovetailed with a powerful account of a father’s love as Samuel Hawley struggles with whether to teach his daughter by word or deed. “It was like they were one person, not two. When he thought, Loo acted.”
Blog Post
Storytimes: L is for Loud
by eapearce
This week at Traverwood and Westgate storytimes on Thursday and Friday, Elizabeth told LOUD stories! We heard the folktale of The Squeaky Door, where lots of farm animals get put into the bed to try and comfort a scared little boy. In The Seven Chinese Sisters, sound effects helped us tell the story of brave sisters who rescue their littlest baby sister from a hungry dragon! And, in Robert Munsch’s Mortimer, we heard the story of the boy who likes to play instruments at bedtime instead of going to sleep!
And a LOUD storytime wouldn’t be complete without the “5 Hot Dogs in a Frying Pan” rhyme. You know what happens when the grease gets hot! One goes BAM!
Storytimes take place at all AADL locations and are free and open to the public. For more information about storytimes, visit our Jump page, created especially for parents and teachers.
Blog Post
Amy Krouse Rosenthal - Children's Author
by potterbee
Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a popular author, filmmaker and speaker died on Monday, March 13, 2017. She is best known for her memoir Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, her children's picture books, and the film project The Beckoning of Lovely. She was a prolific writer, publishing more than 30 books between 2005 and her death in 2017. She was a contributor to Chicago's NPR affiliate WBEZ, and to the TED conference.
Her first success was with the book Little Pea, about a pod denied his favorite dessert (spinach) until he finished all his candy (which he detested). She is the only author to have three children's books make the Best Children's Books for Family Literacy list in the same year for the titles Spoon (2009), Yes Day!, and Duck! Rabbit!, a clever take on the age-old optical illusion: Is it a duck or a rabbit? There's also a subtle lesson for kids who don't know when to let go of an argument. A smart, simple story that will make readers of all ages eager to take a side, Duck! Rabbit! makes it easy to agree on one thing, reading it again!
The follow up to her alphabetized memoir Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (published in 2005), Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal, is full of her distinct blend of nonlinear narrative, wistful reflections, and insightful wit. It sheds light on all the ordinary and extraordinary ways we are connected. A testament to the notion that books and technology don't have to be at odds, this part memoir, part art installation offers a series of vignettes (personal anecdotes, observations, drawings, and photographs) divided into different subjects reminiscent of a high school "textbook."
Her final contribution was published on March 3, 2017 in the New York Times, You May Want to Marry My Husband. In the piece, Rosenthal announced her illness, celebrated her family and sought a new partner for her husband, Jason. She finished the essay on Valentine's Day, and said, "the most genuine, non-vase-oriented gift I can hope for is that the right person reads this, finds Jason, and another love story begins."
Blog Post
Meet “It’s All Write!” 2017 Judge #4: Mike Grosso!
by BugsAndSlugs
The fourth judge for this year's “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest is Mike Grosso, a 4th grade teacher, musician, and author of I am Drums. In this debut novel, sixth grader Sam will do anything to play the drums, especially when she finds out her school’s music program will be cut next year. “This is a worthy and entertaining read about how talent develops and what the potential consequences of pursuing it are: drumroll, please, for a fine homage to spirited single-mindedness.” (Kirkus)
Mike Grosso’s advice for young writers: “Read a lot. Write a lot. Pay attention to other people, even the ones you don't like. Try new things. Figure out what you have to say that nobody else has said. Restate what other people have said in your own unique way. Give yourself opportunities to fail. Remember that failing is just a step on the road to success. Eat cookies. Lots of cookies.”
Learn more about Mike Grosso the author/musician on his website and stay tuned for more information about “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest 2017 Judges!
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #631
by muffy
Borrowing the title from one of Dostoyevsky's famous novel, Elif Batuman's debut novel The Idiot * * * is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale, set in 1995, that "delightfully captures the hyperstimulation and absurdity of the first-year university experience." (Library Journal)
Selin Karada, daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard eager and open to new experiences. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, and is intrigued with email, newly available on campus. In Russian class, Selin is befriended by Svetlana, a cosmopolitan Serb and, almost by accident, begins exchanging email with Ivan, a senior from Hungary. With each email they exchange, her feelings for Ivan intensifies, even knowing that he has a serious girlfriend.
At the end of the school year, after spending 2 weeks in Paris with Svetlana, Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside to teach English, hoping to meet up with Ivan on weekends, where the unfamiliar language gives rise to a succession of seemingly random but mild misadventures with her various host families.
“Selin is delightful company. She’s smart enough to know the ways in which she is dumb, and her off-kilter relationship to the world around her is revelatory and, often, mordantly hilarious... Self-aware, cerebral, and delightful.” (Kirkus Reviews)
Author Elif Batuman, a staff writer at The New Yorker, is a recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and a Paris Review Terry Southern Prize for Humor. She is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a PhD in comparative literature from Stanford University.
* * * = 3 starred reviews
Blog Post
Logan
by PizzaPuppy
Logan opened in theaters on March 3rd to rave reviews and is looking to reshape the superhero movie as we currently know it. Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine/Logan in his 9th appearance in the role spanning 12 years-- this marks his last appearance as Logan. The film takes inspiration from both the revisited Old Man Logan and the original Old Man Logan (available through MelCat), as well as Death of Wolverine. Whether you've seen it yet or not, the library has plenty of materials to quench your thirst for Wolverine.
Revisit Jackman's previous work as Wolverine with the first and second movies in the Wolverine trilogy: X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine. You can also revisit Wolverine as part of the X-Men, in movies such as X-Men, X-Men United: X2, X3:The Last Stand, X-Men First Class, X-Men Days of Future Past and X-Men Apocalypse. It's not an X-Men movie, but also take a look at Shane, which features heavily in Logan and shares similar thematic elements.
Looking for more comic book fun? Give Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins & Endings, or Weapon X a try. Review Wolverine's past with Wolverine Omnibus Vol 1, or watch him face off with his former friends in Wolverine vs. the X-Men.
Kids can also get in on the fun with Readers such as This is Wolveridne, Marvel Superhero Squad: Adventure Collection. They can look up key facts about their favorite heroes with Meet the Marvel Super Heroes, and read comics like Mini Marvels. Wolverine even features as one of the superheroes in the The Super Hero Squad Show series.