Lynn: Excuse me while I hop in my dirigible and zip down to the coffee shop. This was Alberto Santos-Dumont’s preferred method of getting around Paris and the doormen were used to tying his airship to posts while Alberto shopped or visited with friends. In the Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont (Abrams 2011) readers will find the uplifting story of this charming Brazilian who many credit with being the first to fly an airplane. Yes, yes – we Americans all think it was the Wright Brothers but their flights, which were cloaked in secrecy, were in a plane that needed assistance to get off the ground. Santos-Dumont was the first to fly an airplane that took off and landed under it’s own power AND he did it in front of nearly a thousand people who had come to watch in 1906.
I loved reading the story of this exuberant flyer and I’m embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of him although he is very famous outside of the U.S. Eva Montanari’s illustrations are wonderful too, achieving a sense of speed with a slight blurring effect. The story of another famous invention is told here too but I’ll leave that for Cindy. Don’t miss the wonderful author’s note that fills out the story of Santos-Dumont along with some terrific vintage photographs.
Cindy: This is a fitting book to blog today as I start our annual 6th grade scientist and inventor research project. The Wright Brothers I know about, but despite spending a lot of time in our science biography reference shelves over the years, I’d never head of Santos-Dumont either. What an intriguing story…and the pastels, chalks, and oil pastel illustrations complement the story nicely. The other invention that Lynn hinted at is the wristwatch! Alberto had complained to his jeweler friend, Louis Cartier, that he could not free up a hand to pull out his pocket watch while flying…so Cartier came up with a version with a leather strap that could be viewed while using the flight controls. The Santos is still one of the best selling Cartier watches. Fascinating!
Sanots-Dumont was sure that the invention of airplanes would bring about world peace as people could easily travel from country to country to learn that we are all very similar. In the author’s note we learn that he was upset that planes were being used for warfare and he took his own life.
I can’t wait to show this picture book biography to my science teacher today. She likes learning something new as much as Lynn and I do.
I’m headed now to Nonfiction Monday host for this week, Lori Calabrese Writes!, for a round up of other nonfiction blog posts for a chance to learn something else new. Please join me!
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
No, that quote is not about me reading a classic, although it could be. It’s the opening of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Last fall we read and blogged Kenneth Oppel’s This Dark Endeavor and I failed to fess up to not having ever read Frankenstein. But I haven’t. While I wait until August for Oppel’s sequel Such Wicked Intent (Simon & Schuster, Aug. 2012) I’m going to pass the time by getting caught up on the original. While I work on that, I have a few classic questions for our Bookends readers:
What’s the last classic that you read?
Has a children’s or teen title sent you scrambling to refresh yourself on the original? Libba Bray’s Printz winner Going Bovine or Francisco X. Stork’s Last Summer of the Death Warriors both based on Don Quixote perhaps?
What classic is most prominent on your “shelf of shame?” (Books you feel you SHOULD have read but haven’t.)
Do you include classics in your booktalks or readers advisory with teens?
Answer one, or answer all. I look forward to reading your responses, but meanwhile, I need to go see what Victor is up to…
Lynn: The school systems I attended loved the classics and I was hustled through a lot of them in my youth. The sad fact that my teen years preceded much YA literature meant that I read mostly adult books as a teen and that included many classics. My trouble is that after all these years the details are often hazy! I’m pretty sure I read only a few chapters of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, in fact I think I avoided Wharton completely but so far I’m not aware of any YA book that will force me back to that! I remember not liking Dickens much as a child, mostly because we read many of the books in class, taking turns (GROAN) and dissected them to death. (As an adult I’ve come back to Dickens with a whole heart.) I did booktalk the classics, especially in the days when I had an 8th-9th grade building.
I love that we have teen books connecting to the classics. I think it does connect kids to our cultural foundations and I’ve watched many teens be inspired to read the classic texts. The fact that many of them are available either free or very inexpensively on ebook format is a plus.
I have two new books in my to-read stack that have classical roots and I can’t wait to start them! The Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin (Harper/Greenwillow May 2012) is set in a city that is cross between New Orleans and turn-of-the-century Paris and where the fashionable mask their faces and
bare their arms to prove they don’t carry the contagion. The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll & Mademaoiselle Odile by James Reese (Roaring Brook April 2012) features a young girl and her gravely ill brother who come to Paris and meet Dr. Jekyll. He offers a cure…but at what price?
So what about you, readers? Bare your reading souls!
Cindy: Here in Michigan we aren’t getting any snow, so we have to read about it in books! Red Sled (Atheneum 2011) is a delightful nearly wordless wild ride. A young child props a red sled against the wall of a cabin and goes inside for the night. Along comes a bear who borrows the sled for a secret night ride. The watercolor spreads of the fun that ensues are fabulous (from many different perspectives) as other winter nighttime animals join the fun. Think The Mitten on a wild sled ride. By morning the sled is back in place and the child is left to puzzle about the footprints in the snow. I woke up this morning to finish this post to a rare-for-this-winter white covering of snow and I am tempted to go dig out my own sled!
Lynn: I love this joyous picture book too and can’t wait to try it out on the youngest member of the focus group. The book is almost wordless except for snow sound effects – footsteps on snow, the whooshing of the sled and the snow-packed end to the trip. The animals are large in scale with dark outlines that should work perfectly for the youngest readers. I’m in love with all the joy-riding animals and I WANT that red hat! Even if there isn’t much snow this year, snuggling in and reading this charming book is a terrific winter occupation.
Lynn: Cindy deliberated with her YA Lit Jury last weekend for the L.A. Times Book Prize while I gleefully immersed myself in books I couldn’t take time for last year plus an outrageously tempting stack of shiny new 2012 arcs. So we’re batting a little clean-up here on Bookends before leaping into posts on the new stuff. I didn’t get to read much for older teens this past year but one I did read is still one of my absolute favorites for the year. Steampunk: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories (Candlewick 2011). I know – this book practically had my name stamped on the cover! I carried this book to France with me last summer and savored the stories like nibbles of a fabulous cheese. I reviewed the book for Booklist so I’ll keep this short and try not to repeat what I said there. I LOVE this collection! While firmly rooted in steampunk trappings, each and every story pushes the frontiers of the genre in fascinating ways. A stellar line-up of authors includes Libba Bray, Cassandra Clare, Delia Sherman, Cory Doctorow and M.T. Anderson just to name a few. There is something here for every taste and at the end of each story the impulse to read just one more is almost impossible to resist. Have I mentioned how much I love this book? It’s a terrific way to introduce new readers to the genre while making experienced fans incredibly happy.
Cindy: I am not the sf fan that Lynn is, but I have taken a hankering to the steampunk subgenre. My gears are spinning as I try to think how to add to her post, but after firmly adjusting my goggles, I thought I might follow Glinda’s sage advice and start at the beginning. What IS Steampunk? I’ve been promoting the subgenre in my middle school libraries but I have to start by explaining the term to my students and my teachers. They obviously haven’t been stalking the bead aisles at the local craft stores where you can now find industrial and Victorian jewelry parts like gears and compasses and skeleton keys to fashion your own Steampunk baubles. And here are some instructions to get you going.
Our local ArtPrize 2010 contest in Grand Rapids included an enormous sculpture called Parsifal the Steampig. Do a search for “Steampunk computers” and you’ll find many designs I am lusting after. There are steampunk conventions where you will see folks dressed in costumes like these, and Steampunk themed weddings.
But let’s not forget the literature. Link and Grant’s collection couldn’t be more varied from Bray’s rollicking Wild West Mars-like adventure to M. T. Anderson’s exquisite ancient Roman tale of revenge. The bookmaking on this volume is special too. This is a must purchase for all high school collections.
Sure there are lots of logos and NHL copyright symbols included within these bright sturdy pages but they will have great appeal with the hockey fanatic parents who can get their children familiar with the sport while teaching some basic concepts (or perhaps to keep their young ones busy while they are watching a tense game!) The teams seem fairly represented, although I liked the pages with the Chicago Blackhawks the best. Each book has the full set of team logos on the front and back covers. Each book also has a review page in the back with a double page spread of the concepts in the book. This set is a double hat trick!
Lynn: Football is still king in America but hockey is a close second in many areas – especially in the border states like here in Michigan. And for our neighbors to the north – well, there is no question that hockey rules. So this set of bright and sturdy books should be very popular. They are perfect for taking along to the rink while waiting for an older sibling’s practice. Some of the books will be better for readers a bit older than the usual board book diaper team like Hockey Opposites and Hockey Shapes where some of the shapes utilize team logos as examples. But there is something here to entertain hockey lovers of all ages.
Cindy: I’ve been immersed in teen lit this year but being the klutz I am, I couldn’t help but notice the cover of E-mergency! (Chronicle 2011) with poor E slipping on a flight of stairs headed straight for O. Oh-no! The importance of the most frequently used letter E is made perfectly clear in this funny story that has O filling in for his buddy E while she is in the hospital in traction. A “Spocial Bullotin” appears on tv and D and C travel to Washington to alert the government about the e-mergency! (Huh, Congress taking quick action for the common good…fascinating.) Lots of fun ensues as everyday signs and phrases are changed and young readers will have fun sorting out the familiar words. Despite the best efforts of E’s friends and supporters, she isn’t getting well, but the letters figure out the problem…the narrator is still using E. Shame on him. I can hear the giggles from readers, and the fun only starts with the text.
The illustrations are delightful, and paired with the text include puns that will amuse not only the intended audience but the adults reading it with them. Particularly fun are the cut-aways of the alphabet’s house with lots of small dramas and humor presented…kids who like potty humor will especially enjoy the two bathroom scenes. Don’t miss the end-papers, and the title page on which an ambulance is swerving madly to arrive on the scene and nearly takes out the author names. Writing the blog at 5 a.m. this morning, I originally misread the end papers thinking that a high schooler illustrated the book. Let me set the record straight. The idea for the book was inspired by a YouTube video called Alphabet House created by a young man named Ezra Fields-Meyer who granted permission for Tom to build on the idea to write and illustrate E-mergency. Ezra is also the subject of a memoir, Following Ezra, written by Ezra’s father, Tom Fields-Meyer, about the first ten years following Ezra’s diagnosis with autism. Watch this book trailer and you’ll want to read that story as well.
It’s not awful by any means to be buried in teen lit, but I’m sure glad I didn’t miss this e-xtraordinary alphabet book.
Lynn: I’m so glad to be getting to this energetic and excellent book! Since E has recovered from her fall I can throw around e words with abandon. Thank goodness! As readers quickly learn, E is essential! In fact, according to the table in the back, E has the highest frequency use in the English language – 12.7% with T a distant second at 9%. Entertaining and enlightening! Our focus group loved this book for the clever word play and the hilarious illustrations. Who knew letters of the alphabet could have such personality? In fact, I think the audience is for readers a bit older than the usual alphabet book because of the language use. It takes a reader to understand most of the jokes. The twins solemnly decided you needed to be a sophisticated 7 or 8 to really appreciate this book but I think it would be a GREAT book to put up on a visual presenter in a classroom of first or second graders and collectively identify all the jokes. Just be prepared for an epidemic of giggles.
Lynn: Jurmain opens her charming book, Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud (Penguin/Dutton 2011) by asking a most intriguing question, “Can Presidents be pals?” In many cases the answer was no. “Theodore Roosevelt thought McKinley had the backbone of a chocolate eclair.” But sometimes the answer was yes AND no. Jurmain chronicles the on-again off again friendship of two of America’s most important men – Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. They were incredibly different in almost every way from physique to personality to economic status. “They were as different as pickles and ice cream” but their friendship was forged with their big ideas about American freedom and they remained best friends through until about 1790 when their friendship ran aground on how the new government should be run. Their feud was a serious one and lasted through their presidential terms and into their retirements. Finally in 1812, John picked up his pen and wrote to his old friend. Their friendship happily resumed through a vibrant correspondence that lasted right up to the day they both died – July 4th, 1826.
Jurmain writes with a cheery informality that is completely engaging, making these two towering intellects thoroughly human. Larry Day’s brightly humorous illustrations reinforce the tone wonderfully, helping children to understand the history is made by real people who do both ordinary as well as extraordinary things. There is a lot of nicely related history here too! Kids may not realize it but they will learn quite a lot about some of the competing philosophies involved in the founding of this country.
This is one of those great books that can be used in so many ways in classrooms! Terrific for elementary American history classes, and biography units, and just as valuable in middle schools as well. Crank up that visual presenter and have fun!
Lynn: “It was a quiet morning at preschool until Adelaide annoyed Bailey.” An escalating alphabetic chain reaction follows right up to the drenching moment when Zelda zaps Adelaide. Miss Mabel asks Adelaide to apologize and soon calm returns to the school as everyone settles in for story time.
Bottner’s delightfully droll disasters are cleverly captured by Michael Emberley’s illuminating illustrations, executed excellently in pencil and watercolors. Each sequential scene is seriously sidesplitting. Readers will love watching the merry mayhem multiply. OK – sorry – the book seems to be infectious! This little gem is a hoot, clever and funny and each illustration rewards repeat reading. Oops – I’m doing it again.
Our focus group who consider themselves waaaay to old for alphabet books loved this one anyway and I think it is going to become a family favorite. Ack – I can’t stop. I’m handing this off to Cindy before I’m permanently alliterized!
Cindy: I’ll tell you what’s annoying…returning from a busy ALA conference, tired and jet-lagged, and waking up to find out that Lynn expects me to be creatively alliterative in this post. Both bloggers being bouncy is too much for me this morning. I think she is nattering nervously on Newbery fumes! :) And as I flip through this book’s precocious pages again, this book is sounding much like the annoying adolescents in my middle school who are in serious need of a snow day to regain their calm. Or maybe they just need a spray with a watering hose and then a story hour. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Cindy: As I write this, Lynn is winging her way to The American Library Association Midwinter Meetings in Dallas…propelled as much by excitement and nerves as she is by Delta Airlines. Her 2012 Newbery Award deliberations start tomorrow and I am left behind to work for two more days before I can leave town and be ready to cheer for all of the award winners early Monday morning. I’ve had a little taste of some of the fun to come, though, as we completed our Mock Newbery at one of my middle schools this week.
We had a small group of avid 6th grade readers who worked the last couple of months to read as many titles as they could in a short list that we compiled from starred reviews and late year buzz. Their winner was Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar). They cited the characterization and humor as strengths. They selected just one honor book, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Candlewick). They admired the plot and the imbedded stories that helped Conor process what was going on in his life. They also think the Caldecott committee should be considering the illustrations. I like the way these young teens think.
Lynn also worked with another group, 5th graders at Waukazoo Elementary with their librarian, Lori Marco. They read from a slightly different short list of books with some overlap and they don’t want the book club to end with next week’s announcement. They selected a winner and four honor books. Their top choice was Masterwork of a Painting Elephant by Michelle Cuevas (Farrar). When we blogged this book in September I wondered “WHO IS THIS BOOK FOR?” Famous last words…of course a group of bright, well-read 10-year-olds would appreciate its magical realism even if they are unfamiliar with the literary term! Their four honor books were The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens (Knopf), Toys Come Home by Emily Jenkins (Schwartz & Wade), Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan (Atheneum), and…drum roll please…The Other Felix by Booklist‘s own Keir Graff (Roaring Brook). We hope Keir has his Mock Newbery Honor acceptance speech written!
Lynn and I love making Best of the Year lists, as long-time Bookends readers know, but we have given that up this year while we are both serving on major award committees. Please comment here and let us know what YOU would choose for the Newbery before the announcements are made on Monday morning. And then you have another week or so to let me know what your favorite YA titles are before my deadline to select the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA Literature. The shortlist for that will be announced later in February. Stay tuned.
Cindy: I love when I find a nonfiction book that does something new. Music informational books are few and far between considering how much music means to teens. Of course, by the time you purchase and process a Justin Bieber biography, it seems there’s a new kid on the block so it’s hard to keep up. The names may change, but many of the instruments stay the same, and school bands are here to stay, budget cut worries aside. So, I was jazzed when I got my hands on Raggin’ Jazzin’ Rockin’: A History of American Musical Instrument Makers (Boyds Mills 2011).
The eight-chapter book gives the history of some of the most famous names in instrument history including: Zildjian cymbals, Steinway pianos, Conn Cornets, Martin guitars, Ludwig drums, Hammond organs, Fender electric guitars, and Moog synthesizers. Each chapter starts with a teaser about the musician who invented the famous brand, like Avedis Zildjian in 1623 Constantinople, a metalsmith who was given his last “cymbal-maker son” name by the Sultan who admired his work or 8-year-old William Ludwig whose father wanted him to play the violin rather than the drums. His father was a professional trombone player and “didn’t think drumming required serious musical skills.” Eventually Ludwig’s passion for drums won out, but not until he had worked through a variety of “real” instruments. Many of the musicians found a unique way to improve the instruments they loved and some could not contain their creativity and spawned side inventions. Did you know that Larry Hammond of electric organ fame also invented 3-D glasses, and less popular, an electric card-dealing bridge table! There are great family photos to illustrate the chapters.
The book also gives sidebar information with photos, diagrams, and period advertising about the instruments themselves, and about famous legendary musicians who have played them. No Justin Biebers here, but you will find the likes of Eric Clapton, Buddy Rich, Ringo Starr, and George Gershwin.
The chapter about C. G. Conn of Elkhart, Indiana, strikes a personal chord with me. In addition to Conn manufacturing cornets, the C. G. Conn Company became the oldest continuous manufacturer of band instruments in America. I lived just down the street from this factory and later we’d moved across the state line to Michigan but I bought my flute from them when I joined the school band and took it there for service. The company played a big part in encouraging school bands, including founding the Conn National School of Music in Chicago to be the first “band teacher” training school in the country.
Lynn: Excuse me while I hop in my dirigible and zip down to the coffee shop. This was Alberto Santos-Dumont’s preferred method of getting around Paris and the doormen were used to tying his airship to posts while Alberto shopped or visited with friends. In the Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont (Abrams 2011) readers will find the uplifting story of this charming Brazilian who many credit with being the first to fly an airplane. Yes, yes – we Americans all think it was the Wright Brothers but their flights, which were cloaked in secrecy, were in a plane that needed assistance to get off the ground. Santos-Dumont was the first to fly an airplane that took off and landed under it’s own power AND he did it in front of nearly a thousand people who had come to watch in 1906.
I’m headed now to 
the original. While I work on that, I have a few classic questions for our Bookends readers:
Cindy: Here in Michigan we aren’t getting any snow, so we have to read about it in books! Red Sled (Atheneum 2011) is a delightful nearly wordless wild ride. A young child props a red sled against the wall of a cabin and goes inside for the night. Along comes a bear who borrows the sled for a secret night ride. The watercolor spreads of the fun that ensues are fabulous (from many different perspectives) as other winter nighttime animals join the fun. Think The Mitten on a wild sled ride. By morning the sled is back in place and the child is left to puzzle about the footprints in the snow. I woke up this morning to finish this post to a rare-for-this-winter white covering of snow and I am tempted to go dig out my own sled!
Lynn: Cindy deliberated with her YA Lit Jury last weekend for the L.A. Times Book Prize while I gleefully immersed myself in books I couldn’t take time for last year plus an outrageously tempting stack of shiny new 2012 arcs. So we’re batting a little clean-up here on Bookends before leaping into posts on the new stuff. I didn’t get to read much for older teens this past year but one I did read is still one of my absolute favorites for the year. 
Cindy: If I say, “Board Book,” I’m guessing that you might think of yellow duckies and furry puppies. The last thing that might come to mind is a set of NHL© concept books that use the players and trappings of NHL© teams to teach colors and numbers and animals. Christopher Jordan’s set, My First NHL© Books (Tundra 2011) includes Hockey 1 2 3, Hockey A B C, Hockey Shapes, Hockey Colors, Hockey Animals and Hockey Opposites. Let’s count: 1 Stanley Cup, 2 NHL hockey nets, 3 hockey sticks…A is for Arena “a building where fans eagerly gather to watch their favorite hockey team”…Z is for Zamboni “the ice resurfacing machine quickly cleans the ice before games and between periods.” I love Zamboni’s…
Be sure to visit 
Cindy: I’ve been immersed in teen lit this year but being the klutz I am, I couldn’t help but notice the cover of 
Lynn: Jurmain opens her charming book, 
Lynn: “It was a quiet morning at preschool until Adelaide annoyed Bailey.” An escalating alphabetic chain reaction follows right up to the drenching moment when Zelda zaps Adelaide. Miss Mabel asks Adelaide to apologize and soon calm returns to the school as everyone settles in for story time. 
Cindy: As I write this, Lynn is winging her way to The American Library Association Midwinter Meetings in Dallas…propelled as much by excitement and nerves as she is by Delta Airlines. Her 2012 Newbery Award deliberations start tomorrow and I am left behind to work for two more days before I can leave town and be ready to cheer for all of the 
Lynn also worked with another group, 5th graders at Waukazoo Elementary with their librarian, Lori Marco. They read from a slightly different short list of books with some overlap and they don’t want the book club to end with next week’s announcement. They selected a winner and four honor books. Their top choice was 
Cindy: I love when I find a nonfiction book that does something new. Music informational books are few and far between considering how much music means to teens. Of course, by the time you purchase and process a Justin Bieber biography, it seems there’s a new kid on the block so it’s hard to keep up. The names may change, but many of the instruments stay the same, and school bands are here to stay, budget cut worries aside. So, I was jazzed when I got my hands on