World Almanac Books,2012
352 pages, $13.99 (soft cover)
I’ve raised two kids and this is not the kind of book I would have given either for Christmas or for getting a “B” in high school geometry. It is the kind of book I would buy and put on the back of the toilet, to be sampled a little each day by everyone in the family. And I’m not sure a year of doing that wouldn’t generate a better education than any school could offer. Read the rest of this entry ?
Rascal by Sterling North
Puffin Books,1991
194 pages, $5.99 (soft cover)
I’ve had this book on my shelf for two years, and didn’t read it. Perhaps, because it had been a Disney film or because Wikipedia described it as about a young boy whose mother had died—his father a hopeless dreamer—who becomes best friends with a pet raccoon, Rascal, until “one day the boy realizes things must change…”
Not that the description is wrong, but it the maudlin situation is buried in the subtext of this little masterpiece which is awash in recounting the childhood we all share and Wisconsin small-town life no one has ever come this close to capturing.
We often argue about regional writing, or writing of place, but such questions fly like a scattering of crows when you experience real things. This isn’t a book for kids, parents, Wisconsinites or adults. It is a book that grabs everyone and won’t let go until that final canoe ride. Sterling, these tears are for you. You were a great writer who shows us what great writing is all about.
Order this book directly from Amazon for $5.99. Click: Rascal (PMC) (Puffin Modern Classics)
by Petrucha, Kinney & Murase
Papercut Z
$10.99, 62 pages
Some graphic treatments of old favorites end up being talking heads narrating plot. Not so this little hard-cover prize which is tongue-and-cheek about the vampire craze, true to the intelligence and wit of the original Nancy Drew series, and pops and zips in the best graphic novel tradition. Read the rest of this entry ?
by Dominic Garramone, O.S.B.
Illustrated by Richard Bernal
Reedy Press
$16.95 (hardback), 30 pages
The challenge of a great children’s book is that it has to appeal to kids and it has to appeal to parents and grandparents who are going to buy it. This one succeeds on the second count, but I’m afraid while the adult is reading it out loud the youngster will be squirming Read the rest of this entry ?
WHEN I WAS LITTLE by Jamie Lee Curtis
This is so much fun that both adults and their four-year-olds can live the magic of that time. Who cares that Jamie Lee Curtis wrote it? It rings so authentic and true and that’s what matters. Read the rest of this entry ?
I SAW GOD by Mary Murray Bosrock
This is a unique book that defies categorization either as religious or as for a certain age. The author told me she is having difficulty getting it into school libraries b(because of iits title) but also that is being translated into Arabic (which will give you some idea of its scope). It begins with a picture of island utopia that suddenly becomes divided by disagreement over specifics of an appearance there by God. Read the rest of this entry ?
HIDE!!! by Jeff Foxworthy
(Illustrated by Steve Bjӧrkman)
Beaufort Books, New York
I never read to my grandkids. Instead I have them tell me the story prompted by the pictures in the book. Hide feeds this kind of interaction. It’s about a group of kids playing hide and seek, but here’s the wonder: viewers of its lively illustrated pages are challenged to find so many mops, spoons, painted cups, etc., in each picture before them. Read the rest of this entry ?
