wednesday august 29
Ellen Stoll Walsh’s Mouse books have always been among my favorite concept books for children. Her approach to teaching concepts such as colors and counting move beyond the typical education driven book, creating a wonderful story that also happens to reinforce learning concepts. The approach is always imaginative, with the simple, finely cut paper illustrations perfectly complimenting the mice's engaging adventures.
Walsh’s latest book, Mouse Shapes (2007) is no exception. A mischief of mice run from a cat and find themselves near a pile of colored shapes. The mice discover it is possible to employ the shapes, forming new creations: houses, trees, a sun. The designs become more and more intricate as the book progresses. When the cat threatens to pounce, the mice devise a cunning plan to use the shapes to scare him away.
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Sometimes it’s worth taking a flier on a debut paperback original. I found this was the case with Plague Year, Jeff Carlson’s post-apocalyptic science fiction thriller.
A small band of men and women cling to survival on a tiny peak in the Sierra Nevada. The group made it through a terrible winter, following the outbreak of plague worldwide. They've done so by eating their dead.
Most of the human and animal life on Earth perished two months after an experimental nanotech virus was stolen from a Sacramento laboratory. The nanotech was developed with the promise of ridding the human body of disease and pollutants – such as cancer – as well as offering greatly extended lifetimes. But the untested, self-replicating machine virus was released into the atmosphere hours after it was stolen. Simply breathing it was a death sentence.
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tuesday august 28
It’s not often that I find myself reading the same book at the same time as my two oldest nieces, ages nineteen and twelve. But recently the three of us have all been looking for a way to fill that Harry-shaped hole in our hearts, now that Mr. Potter has left the building. It turns out that having found how
Harry’s story ends, we have all started rereading the series. J.K. Rowling has written such a memorable set of stories that when you start rereading
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, meeting the characters somehow feels like you are looking at some old family photographs that you are thrilled to rediscover.
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monday august 27
Paul Pennyfeather, an industrious third-year student at the College of Scone, Oxford, and the protagonist of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall, innocently crosses paths with members of the posh Bollinger Club. Naturally, the next thing that happens is that Oxford administrators unfairly "send him down" for "indecent behavior," and Paul is forced to take work as an instructor at a Welsh preparatory school. Since the novel is a dark comedy, Paul quiets his first class by offering a prize to the student who can write the longest essay, regardless of merit.
Interestingly, although Waugh certainly does not mean for us to respect Paul's teaching ability, this writing-instruction technique is quite popular among contemporary English composition instructors, including me.
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sunday august 26
Children’s book illustrator Bruce Wood, creator of such popular books as Alphabet Adventure (2001), Alphabet Mystery (2003), and Alphabet Rescue (2006) died last month at the young age of 34.
Wood is the son of author/illustrator team Audrey and Don Wood. As a child, he posed for his father as he created characters in several best-selling books, including Caldecott honor winner, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub (2005).
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friday august 24
Anyone who sets out to write a mystery has to start with the development of a great sleuth: a character who is clever yet who also has enough human foibles to create a certain charm. Hercule Poirot and Stephanie Plum are fine examples of detectives, professional or amateur, who truly seem to have a life of their own.
Enter Inspector Enrique Alvarez, who first appeared in 1974 and continues to entertain readers in his characteristically continental style.
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thursday august 23
Last week, New Line Cinema released two breath-taking trailers for the film adaptation of The Golden Compass, the first book in British author Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.
Pullman creates a reality both like and unlike that which we know. Here, Earth is one of only five planets in the solar system, every human has a daemon (an animal familiar embodiment of their soul) and it takes place in a time similar to our late 19th century.
The overarching plot focuses on Oxford scholars in a race to unleash the power that will enable them to cross the bridge to a parallel universe. The trilogy features all the hallmarks of a great, epic myth. 11 year old Lyra Belacqua, an orphan brought up ignorant of her true identity, leaves her home in Jordan College at Oxford University for the frozen wastelands of the north on a quest to save kidnapped children, among them her friend Roger, and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel, from the evil “Gobblers,” who are using them as part of a sinister experiment.
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