1208 - 1211 (2024 #26 - #29). December 2024

 

On Record: Vol. 10 – 1983: Images, Interviews & Insights From the Year in Music by G. Brown

This book is the tenth volume in the On Record series on various years in music from 1978 to 1998 (not in chronological order).  Published by Colorado Music Experience (sales benefit this non-profit cultural and educational organization), founding director and author G. Brown covered popular music at The Denver Post for 26 years, interviewing more than 3,000 musicians, and collecting an archive of close to 15,000 rare promotional photos.  Much of those seem to be incorporated in this series. 

The book includes 235 musicians or groups, mostly from American rock, but other genres and nationalities are included.  Despite being pretty young in 1983, I'd only heard of about half of the artists.  (I probably would have found Volume 1 - 1978, or Volume 7 - 1979, to be a better fit.)

The first 207 pages covers 100 of those, with double-page spreads on each.  On the left is a color photo of an album released by them in 1983, and captions indicating if the album made the Billboard Top 200 and what cuts made the Billboard Hot 100 (and the respective rankings).  There is also a write-up about the album, the musician or group, and quotes from interviews Brown did with them.  On the right is a black-and-white promotional photo of the musician or group from the record company (sometimes the same as the image on the album cover).

Sets of two double-page spreads start on page 208.  The first page pictures three album covers (in color) with the name of the musician or group and a single sentence about them and/or the album, along with the Billboard information as in the previous section.  This is followed by three pages of black-and-white publicity photos, one for each musician or group.

Finally, for ten pages starting on page 348, three albums are on each page as in the previous section, but there are no publicity photos.  I found these last two sections a little confusing, as (except on page 216), all the headers said the albums were from 1992, not 1983, but perhaps that's corrected in later printings.  

It's a lavish book and would make a great gift for a music fan.  As a retired university librarian (with public and K-12 school experience), I think there needs to be a hardcover version with better binding to hold up better in a circulating library setting.

Boy Here, Boy There, written and illustrated by Chuck Groenick

This lovely picture book depicts an encounter between a Neanderthal boy and a Homo sapiens boy, something scientists now think could have happened.  The text consists of simple phrases, easy for a beginning reader, and there's a longer author's note (as well as a list of sources) at the end of the book for adults or older readers. The gorgeous illustrations are done in gouache, pencils, wax pastels, charcoal, and digital media.  I loved how the Neanderthals were pictured so realistically, with smudged hands, feet, and knees.

I Am Wind by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Rachel Wada

This 73-page nonfiction picture book for middle-grade readers has the subtitle "An Autobiography," as some of its short chapters are "narrated" by the subject itself.  Beginning and ending with poems, this book incorporates mythology, science, geography, and history covering all aspects of wind - its many forms and effects.  The book has a universal approach, with stories and names for winds from all over the world, and a balanced view of its effects on the land and its use as a power source.

The wind's motion is aptly conveyed by colorful illustrations that combine traditional brush and ink with digital editing.  The table of contents at the beginning, the index to key terms and suggested further reading at the end, and the many diagrams and sidebars throughout the book make it a great teaching resource.

Recycled Virgin by DA Brown 

I read this fantasy because I was intrigued by the premise after reviewing the author's other book, Spit and Polish, and because its e-book price was quite low and I had Amazon No-Rush Rewards to apply towards it.  Mary, the mother of Jesus, gets reincarnated over and over, and the book presents an alternate history from that given in the Bible and religious (especially Catholic) doctrine.  Told from the viewpoint of Mary (Marian in her current life), I found her present-day situation believable, and enjoyed the glimpses into the historical lives of women from Mary's previous reincarnations.  A book to make you think - particularly if you are Catholic born-and-bred but now mostly agnostic like me.  

874-882 (2019 #1-9). January 2019

When the Men Were Gone, by Marjorie Herrera Lewis, is historical fiction about Tylene Wilson, who spent 38 years in the Brownwood, Texas, school district, 18 of them as principal of East Elementary.  In 1944, she apparently also coached the football team of the struggling local Daniel Baker College (now incorporated into Brownwood's Howard Payne University) when its coach left for World War II.  A photo contributed to the local Brownwood newspaper shows Wilson with a football team - but it's little boys, probably elementary or at most middle school age, not high-schoolers.

I mention all of this because Lewis, a former sports reporter who covered the Dallas Cowboys, has presented Wilson as the assistant principal of Brownwood High School who takes on the head coaching job when the previous head coach is killed in the war.  The novel ends shortly after the team's first game - with Stephenville High School, in the town where I work.  So naturally I wanted to see if any of this was true.

Supposedly Tylene coached at the high school, too, but there's no proof - the school's records were destroyed in a 1960 fire.  Lewis originally intended to write a biography, but there were gaps in potential sources during the war years (no yearbook for Daniel Baker College for 1944-45, for example). And, oddly, very little coverage of this supposedly unique and newsworthy item in Texas newspapers in that era.  So Lewis enrolled in a MFA writing program and turned the truths she had into fiction.  I just wish it was more clear that it's more fiction than truth.

A Spark of Life by Jodi Picoult - Jodi Picoult is known for taking on newsworthy topics - suicide, school shootings, etc. - in her realistic fiction, and in this case she's also taken on a controversial one - abortion.  The action occurs in one day, starting with the five o'clock hour and the pre-climatic scene - and then goes backwards, hour by hour, to eight a.m., followed by an epilogue at six p.m.  The setting is Jackson, Mississippi, primarily in a women's clinic there that is the only place in the state providing abortions - although they also offer gynecological exams and birth control, which is what 15-year-old Wren McElroy is seeking.  When George Goddard arrives at the clinic and starts shooting, it's Wren's negotiating-expert cop dad, Hugh, who's trying to get Wren and the other hostages released.

As the book moves back in time, the reader learns more about the backgrounds and stories of each of ten main characters:  Wren, Hugh, and his sister Bex; George; Louis Ward, a traveling doctor at the clinic; nurse Izzy; patient Joy; anti-choice protestor Janice (in the clinic pretending to be a patient to obtain evidence that abortions are forced, she becomes another hostage); Olive, an older lesbian; and Beth - who has just been arrested while in a hospital three hours north in Mississippi for performing an illegal medication abortion on herself.

It's pretty easy to figure out how Beth fits into this story.  While the resolutions are pretty clear for the other characters by the end of the book, I was left wondering what ultimately happens to Beth.

The meaning behind the title is not so obvious but is explained later in the book.  I won't spoil that, nor another surprise in the 8 a.m. hour.

I really liked this book a lot as it presents different viewpoints on the abortion issue and makes the reader think.  I re-read it in chronological order and found the book not quite as compelling as reading it in the order written.  Picoult interviewed pro-life activists as well as numerous women who'd had abortions, medical professionals, abortion clinic staff, lawyers, and police hostage negotiaters.  She cites various laws and cases related to abortion in different states, and also includes a three-page (in the large print version) bibliography.

Some quotes that stuck out for me (all from the large print version):

Page 78 (end of 5 p.m. hour):  "We are all drowning slowly in the tide of our opinions, oblivious that we are taking on water every time we open our mouths."  From the author's note at the end of the book, written in March 2018, I have to wonder if she was talking about our current illustrious president.

Page 224 (about halfway through the noon hour): "'All that legal protection you want for the unborn,' Joy said [to Janine]. 'Great, Give it to them.  But only if you can find a way to not take it away from me.'"

Page 464 (near the end of the 10 a.m. hour):  "Whether or not you believed a fetus was a human being, there was no question in anyone's mind that a grown woman was one.  Even if you placed moral value on that fetus, you couldn't give it rights unless they were stripped away from the woman carrying it.  Perhaps the question wasn't When does a fetus become a person? but When does a woman stop being one?"


Bruno's Hat, written and colorfully illustrated by Canizales, is a cute book about bullying and standing up for your friends, told from a child's point of view. A downloadable discussion and activity guide for parents and educators is available at the publisher's website.

 

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - historical fiction - a more-or-less true story originally written as a screenplay and later converted to a novel.  Lale [Eisenberg /] Sokolov, a 26-year-old Slovakian Jew, has the ability to speak multiple languages, and that gets him chosen to tattoo ID numbers on the arms of new arrivals at Auschwitz and Birkenau.  This job brings with it some priveleges (more food and privacy, a better bed, etc.) and Lale's own - sorry, I have to describe it as smarminess - gets him to sweet-talk other prisoners to bring him jewels and money they find in a building sorting though prisoners' belongings (what?  I find it hard the women working in the building could get away with this), which he uses to pay construction workers from the outside for more food and treats (like chocolate), some of the latter he uses to bribe the guards.

Lale falls in love with a Slovakian teenager he tattoos named Gita.  I found that the giggling of her girlfriends and all the opportunities Lale and Gita have to see each other seemed unrealistic to me.  I'm not sure if it was because I found Lale to be rather unlikeable, or because Morris' writing is so bad, but the story didn't grab me.  Morris interviewed Lale for three years, after Gita's death in 2003 and before his in 2006.  Perhaps the story was embellished by Lale over the years, perhaps age affected his memory.

On page 156-157, Lale tells Gita, "I have been given the choice of participating in the destruction of our people, and I have chosen to do so in order to survive.  I can only hope I am not one day judged a perpetrator or a collaborator."  Well, it probably helped that Lale and Gita moved to Australia after the war.

Also page 188:  "Lale is largely immune to the camp disputes.  Working with Leon and only a handful of other prisoners alongside the SS, he is removed from the plight of the thousands of starving men who must work and fight and live and die together.  Living among the Romany also gives him a sense of security and belonging.  He realizes he has settled into a pattern of life that is comfortable relative to the conditions of the majority. He works when he has to, spends whatever time he can steal with Gita, plays with the Romany children, and talks to their parents..."  So Lale himself admits his experience was not that of the usual prisoner.  I guess it bothered me to see Auschwitz portrayed as not so bad.

One reviewer said, "This book could have been set in a summer camp for all its accuracy and authenticity. Between the giggling between the campers (I mean inmates), the friendly conversations with the counselors (I mean guards), the sneaking around the bunks (I mean barracks), I had to put this book down and not finish it."

My cover had a view of the backs of a nondescript couple; I liked the cover with the tattooed arms holding hands better - even though, as it turns out, one of the tattoos is wrong (see links below).

Unbelievable book, full of inaccuracies. Yes, it says it's a novel on the cover, but it also says, "based on the powerful true story of love and survival." See:
‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ and the History in Historical Fiction, The New York Times, November 8, 2018. 
The Tattooist of Auschwitz controversy: Author in clash with holocaust survivor's son over 'mistakes' in international bestseller, The Daily Mail, November 30, 2018.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz attacked as inauthentic by camp memorial centre, The Guardian, December 7, 2018.
Auschwitz researchers dismiss book about camp tattooist due to ‘factual errors’, The Jewish News, December 11, 2018.


Circe by Madeline Miller, read by Perdita Weeks - historical fiction - or is it fantasy? - based on the Greek mythological character, who was the daughter of the Titan sun god Helios, and Perse, one of the three thousand Oceanid nymphs. Her brothers were Aeëtes, keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos of Crete and mother of the Minotaur.  Miller expands upon the tale of Circe in Homer's Odyssey to work in her early life, her interactions with her family and other Titans, and what happened to her after Odysseus left her island.  Totally fascinating book; now I have to read Miller's Song of Achilles.  Love the cover of the print book, with its reflective copper/gold image, but the image on the audiobook is quite cool too.  Perdita Weeks (who plays Higgins on the Magnum P. I. reboot) was a fabulous reader - as the story is told in first person from Circe's point of view, I definitely felt she defined Circe.


The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - historical fiction retelling the story of Achilles, in first person from the point of view of his companion Patroclus.  The novel starts with Patroclus' early life, through his boyhood with Achilles, up to the events of the Iliad (which I have never read).  Miller, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in Latin and Ancient Greek, comes up with different interpretations of events and plausible reasons for Achilles' actions in the Iliad.
And there's no heel story - the author explains why here.  This debut novel won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction.  The cover image is of a Greek helmet, only of reflective bronze/gold.


American Duchess by Karen Harper - historical fiction, early reviewer, ARC - This is a biographical novel about Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill Balsan.  A member of the wealthy American Vanderbilt family, she was married off by her ambitious mother to the Duke of Marlborough in England in 1895.  I have a hard time getting interested in the first world problems of the incredibly wealthy, although the section about the escape by Consuelo and her second husband from France during World War II was exciting.  And that is where this book ends.  It would be interesting to see how Consuelo's 1953 autobiography, The Glitter and the Gold, compares with this book.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford - historical fiction inspired by a true story - that of a boy (albeit a baby) raffled off (but not claimed as a prize) at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.  Ford takes that kernal of truth and develops a story around it.  Yung Kun-ai , the mixed-race boy, is older, about age 12, child of a Chinese woman and an Anglo missionary, who was brought to America in 1902. On the ship over, Yung befriends a group of slightly-older girls, one of whom, Fahn, is Japanese. Yung becomes Ernest Young and is initially placed at a boarding school, but in the raffle, he's won by Seattle's best-known madam, Flora (Florence) Nettleton.  Much to his surprise, Fahn is a maid there, and he also becomes friends with the madam's daughter, Maisie (aka Margaret).  The story goes back and forth between 1909-1910 and 1962, when Seattle hosts another world's fair, the Century 21 Exposition, and Ernest's journalist daughter tries to uncover the story of the raffled child - her father.

Madame Flora is based on a real Seattle madam, Lou Graham, and Flora's establishment, the Tenderloin, is a building that still exists in Seattle's Pioneer Square.  (More history here.)  Fahn's character is based on Yamada Waka.

I like this cover with the younger couple walking and the fair in the background better than that of the copy I borrowed.


The Shadow Queen, by Sandra Gulland, read by Meredith Mitchell - historical fiction, audiobook.  The title is a little misleading, as the book is not about
Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan, better known as Madame de Montespan, an official mistress of King Louis XIV of France, called by some the "true Queen of France" or the "shadow queen" because of her influence at court.  Athénaïs is a character in the book, but it is really about her companion,  Claude de Vin des Œillets, the daughter of two actors.  The most interesting parts of the book are those depicting 17th century French theater, and it's clear that author Sandra Gulland did a lot of research on this topic.  Meredith Mitchell was an adequate reader with a youthful voice, although she had a bit of a lisp that I found distracting at times.


© Amanda Pape - 2019

843 - 850 (2018 #57-64). The Rest of September 2018

Everything Beautiful Began After, by Simon Van Booy - unfinished advance reader edition.  When one (Rebecca) of the three main and unlikable characters died about halfway through the book, I decided I did not like the other two characters (George and Henry) enough to care what happened to them, even though the setting in archaeological digs in Greece was somewhat interesting.

The Kings and Queens of Roam, by Daniel Wallace - advanced reader edition - finished this one, but wondered why I did - it was so weird, and also had nothing but unlikable characters: sisters Helen and Rachel McAllister, descendants of the even more unlikable founder of the fictional remote silk manufacturing town of Roam, Elijah McAllister.  There's also a number of benign ghosts in this fantasy.

Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay - audiobook, unfinished.  Boring.  Too many references to classics I have not read, like the tiresome Pride and Prejudice.  Main character Samantha Moore, who's lived in a group home since she was 15, gets a grant to attend journalism graduate school (at Northwestern University in my birthplace of Evanston, Illinois) at age 23 from a mysterious "Mr. Knightley" who only requests that she write letters to him that he won't answer.  I skipped ahead to the end and it was rather predictable.

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Weaver - audiobook.  Looks like Dear Mr. Knightley was an updating of this 1912 book.  I did listen to all of it, but after reading the end of the Knightley book, I guessed pretty quickly where this one was heading.  The reader, Julia Whelan, sounded the right age (17-21), but read too fast, not pausing enough between the letters.  Couldn't view the downloadable material which supposedly includes some very childish stick-figure drawings (some referred to in the text) by Webster.  Sounds like it is no great loss.

Children of the Jacaranda Tree - advance reader edition, realistic fiction, historical fiction.  The story of various families in Iran during and after the revolution, with the stories moving back and forth in time (1983-2011) and location (Tehran, Iran, and Turin, Italy).  It does get a little confusing at times, but provides insights into what life was like for political activists against the Islamic revolution, and reflects the experiences of the author, Sajar Delijani, and her family.

Every Note Played by Lisa Genova - e-book, realistic fiction.  One of the main characters is a classical concert pianist who has ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease.  He is cared for by the other main character, his ex-wife (and mother of their college-age daughter) who was a pianist in her own right, although she preferred jazz.  Excellent book.  Lisa Genova has become a master at demonstrating the awful effects of some incurable conditions on the lives of the victim and their families.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan - audiobook, historical fiction set in World War II, mostly in the Brooklyn Naval Yard but also some in San Francisco and at sea.  Two readers, male and female.  SO good!

Girl in Reverse by Barbara Stuber - YA historical fiction - couldn't finish, it was moving so slowly.  I skipped ahead to the end.  A little of a surprise on who the real father was of adopted Chinese teen Lily Firestone.  Most interesting part of the story was its time setting in the Korean War era.  This was an ARC that came out in 2014 (been on the TBR pile a while) but it apparently didn't catch on, maybe for the same reasons I had problems with it.

© Amanda Pape - 2018

831-835 (2018 #s 45-49). The Rest of July 2018

I, Juan de Pareja - The slave Juan de Pareja was the subject of a 1650 painting (below) by his master, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (who later freed him and made him his assistant). This book is based on their lives - which have little documentation.  This makes them great subjects for historical fiction.

Elizabeth Borton de Treviño studied Spanish and writing at Stanford, and later lived in Mexico. In her afterword, she alludes to the racial tension of the 1960s and states that she hopes it will appeal "to young people of both white and Negro races because the story...foreshadows, in the lifetime of the two men, what we hope to achieve a millionfold today.  Those two, who began in youth as master and slave, continued as companions in their maturity and ended as equals and friends."  I have to wonder if this statement contributed to the book receiving the 1966 Newbery Medal.

The audiobook narrator properly pronounces the Zs in Velázquez's name in the true Spanish style (like Th).

Other books read this month:

Helen of Sparta (e-book, historical fiction)

It's All Relative (audiobook)

The Grey King (audiobook, 1976 Newbery) - unfinished

Mozart's Last Aria (audiobook, historical fiction) - by Matt Rees, about the death of Mozart, investigated by his estranged sister Nannerl and involving other characters from history, such as Baron Gottfried van Swieten.  Read by Rula Lenska, it would have been nice if the audiobook could have included selections from the pieces of Mozart's music referenced in the novel.

© Amanda Pape - 2018

765-766 (2017 #63 and #64). Two Children's Picture Books

Where Oliver Fits, written and illustrated by Cale Atkinson, is a wonderful picture book about "fitting in."  Oliver is a jigsaw puzzle piece who adjusts his shape and color in an effort to fit into various jigsaw puzzles - all unsuccessful, of course.  He ultimately changes himself so much that he becomes unrecognizable.  He fits in, but is unhappy.  The ending is a happy one, and the message is great.  It's also a good lead-in to a discussion about disabilities.  The fun and colorful illustrations, made in Photoshop, will attract age-appropriate children.  Definitely a great book for kids, parents, and classroom use.

Cinderella and the Furry Slippers is another "fractured folktale" retelling of a classic fairy tale by the pair of Davide Cali and illustrator Raphaëlle Barbanègre, who teamed up on Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs.  Once again, Swiss-born Italian Davide Cali has written a slightly feminist take on the traditional tale with a twist at the end.  French-Canadian artist Raphaëlle Barbanègre's colorful, whimsical, digitally-rendered illustrations add a lot to the story - especially the facial expressions!  I could definitely see using this book in a second grade classroom in my state, where students are supposed to "compare different versions of the same story in traditional and contemporary folktales with respect to their characters, settings, and plot."

© Amanda Pape - 2017

[I received these hardbound editions from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  They will be added to the curriculum collection at my university library.]

757-758 (2017 #55-56). Two Quick Reviews

Dog Night at the Story Zoo, written by Dan Bar-El and illustrated by Vicki Nerino, was sent to be by mistake - I was supposed to get another book to review.  This is a graphic novel or comic book style collection of four short stories, all of which take place at a sort of stand-up comedy night after hours at a zoo.   The stories, each of which features a domesticated dog, can stand alone.  It will be a good addition to the graphic novel collection at my university library.

I'm not quite sure why I chose to listen to Mr. Fox, written by Helen Oyeyemi and read by Britisher Carole Boyd.  It was available as an electronic audiobook in my university library's collection, and I think I thought it was an audiobook that had been suggested by BookPage.

I just couldn't get into this book, despite listening to over half of it.  I guess I don't have the background to "get" all the retold fables and folktales interwoven in it.   It didn't help that Boyd often dropped her voice to a whisper that was nearly impossible to hear over the road noise of my commute.

© Amanda Pape - 2017

712-713 (2017 #10 & #11). Two Award-Winning Picture Books

When the American Library Association announced its annual Youth Media Award recipients on January 23, 2017, I pulled the one honoree I'd already ordered earlier in the year (because it was a picture book on the 2017-2018 Texas Bluebonnet Award reading list) from the to-be-cataloged shelf at my university library.  I also went to my local public library and checked out the two picture books they had that were honorees.  I wrote about one book yesterday; here's my review of the other two.

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the "most distinguished American book for beginning readers."  Oops, Pounce, Quick, Run! An Alphabet Caper, written and illustrated by Mike Twohy, was named as a 2017 Geisel Honor Book.

This clever alphabet book uses a single word on each page or spread to tell a simple story of a dog, a mouse, and a ball.  Mike Twohy is a longtime cartoonist whose work has been published in The New Yorker magazine and other mainstream publications.  He used India ink and felt-tip pens to create the illustrations in this book.

The Pura Belpré Illustrator Award is given to "a Latino/Latina ... illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth." Duncan Tonatiuh, a previous medalist (2012) and honoree (2011 and 2014-2016), had two works named as Honor Books for Illustration in 2017, one of which is on the 2017-2018 Texas Bluebonnet Award reading list.

The Princess and the Warrior is a retelling of the legend of Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, two volcanoes near Mexico City.  

The illustrations (hand-draw then collaged digitally) were inspired by Mexican Pre-Columbian art, primarily the Mixtec writing code of the 12th century.  A characteristic of this style, according to the author's note at the end of the book, is that "people and animals are always drawn in profile.  Their entire bodies are usually shown, and their ears often look like the number 3."  Tonatiuh even uses speech scrolls in his illustration (similar to speech bubbles), such as in the illustration below.

Tonatiuh based the enemy warrior in the book on the real Mixtec warrior Jaguar Claw, and uses a number of Nahuatl (Aztec) words in the book, some of which have become part of Mexican Spanish.  A glossary of these follows the author's note, and is followed by a bibliography.

© Amanda Pape - 2017

[These books were borrowed from and returned to my local public library and my university library respectively.]

709 (2017 #7). The Queen of the Frogs

by Davide Cali,
illustrated by Marco Soma

A modern fable, originally published in Portugal, about a frog who finds a crown (a human's ring) and begins to get (and expect) preferential treatment as the queen. Whimsical illustrations by Marco Soma have the frogs in 1920s clothing and settings, in mostly natural greens and browns.


© Amanda Pape - 2017

[I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program,  It will be added to my university library's collection.]

670 (2016 #25). First Frost

by Sarah Addison Allen,
read by Susan Ericksen

This is a sequel to Garden Spells, set about ten years later.  Some sequels can stand alone, but in this case, First Frost will make more sense if one has read Garden Spells first.

The Waverley sisters, Claire and Sydney, are now happily married, to Tyler and Henry respectively.  Claire has an almost-ten-year-old daughter, Mariah, and Sydney's daughter Bay is now 15.  Bay is a major character in this story, developing her "Waverley magic" and experiencing her first love.

Autumn is apparently a time of angst for Waverley women, and they eagerly await the "first frost" of the season when their quirky apple tree blooms (not surprising for a tree that can throw its apples).  The frosted apple on the cover gains significance when one gets near the end of the story.  Besides Bay's high school romance, her mother Sydney is anxious about her inability to conceive, and Claire is stressed out by her new candy-making business that has caused her to leave cooking and catering behind.  A stranger in town ultimately helps her resolve her situation.

I'm very glad I listened to the audiobook, read (as Garden Spells was) by Susan Ericksen, as once again, she does a marvelous job giving character to the characters.  I fully expect Sarah Addison Allen to have another book in this series, likely set about five years or so later when Bay is a young adult and Mariah is a teen.  First Frost felt like it was setting up for that sequel.


© Amanda Pape - 2016

[This e-audiobook was purchased via Audible.com.]

548 (2016 #14). Garden Spells

by Sarah Addison Allen,
read by Susan Ericksen

A fun blend of magical realism and romance set in a small town in the South, Garden Spells was a delight.  This is the first book in what is called the Waverley Family series, and I'm certainly planning to read any subsequent books.

Claire Waverley is a 34-year-old single woman running a catering and baking business specializing in edible flowers and floral flavorings - and the magical effects they can produce.  She lives alone in a large Queen Anne that belonged to the grandmother she grew up with, in the fictional small college town of Bascom, North Carolina.  Claire's mother abandoned her there along with her six-years-younger sister Sydney, and disappeared.  Sydney too left town in imitation of her mother, but comes back at the beginning of this story along with her five-year-old daughter, Bay.

It's not a deep book and is rather predictable (particularly the romance), but the plot is enjoyable and the characters are quirky yet endearing.  This was author Sarah Addison Allen's first book, and her others sound interesting to me, too.  Susan Ericksen does a fabulous job as the audiobook narrator.  I especially liked her voices for Claire's and Sydney's elderly cousin Evanelle (who is compelled to give people things they later find useful), and the evil wealthy Southern matron Ariel Clark.


© Amanda Pape - 2016

[This audiobook was borrowed from and returned to my local public library.]

547 (2016 #13). Behind the Canvas

by Alexander Vance,
read by Erin Moon

A fantasy/mystery with a 12-year-old narrator/heroine, Behind the Canvas has an interesting premise - another world behind the scenes of famous paintings.  While I'm not much for either fantasy or mystery, I did enjoy some of the funny characters (especially Cash, the bulldog from the Dogs Playing Poker painting series), as well as the entertaining (and educational) quotes from the fictional art encyclopedia that separated many chapters.  Erin Moon was a perfect narrator, as I really felt she could be heroine Claudia Miravista.

Author Alexander Vance has a helpful chart on his website listing the artists, artworks, and art topics that appear in the book, down to the page number.  A real art encyclopedia would best accompany this audiobook so the listener could take a look at the images and concepts described in the story.

© Amanda Pape - 2016

[I received this audiobook through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to my university library's collection.]

534 (2015 #91). When Santa Was a Baby

by Linda Bailey and Genevieve Godbout


This is a wonderful picture book about Santa as a baby and child.  It works in all the Santa mythology as well as a subtle message that it's okay for kids to be different.

The retro-style illustrations are done with pastels and colored pencils.  This is a great addition to any family's Christmas book collection.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to my university library's collection.]

526-528 (2015 #83-85). 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea - Three Versions

by Jules Verne,
abridged children's version adapted by Diane Flynn Grund,
audio English version read by Michael Prichard,
unabridged translation by Emanuel J. Mickel

I wanted to read this classic because it was being read by the main female character in Anthony Doerr's  All the Light We Cannot See, and there were references to it in the story that were unfamiliar with me. Although often considered a children's book (for reasons that will be made clear soon), I hadn't read it, probably because I wasn't interested in science fiction and adventure stories as a girl.

I first read the children's abridged version pictured at left, which I borrowed from the juvenile fiction section at my local public library.  It's part of a series called "Treasury of Illustrated Classics" originally published in the 1990s that took long classics (some considered appropriate for children, some not), drastically abridged them, added (rather poorly done) black-and-white uncredited illustrations, printed them on poor quality paper and bound them with a colorful cover designed to attract the kids.

Even so, it was enough for me to understand the basic plot of the novel and how it related to Doerr's book.  I did want to read a more complete version of the book, however.

So next, I borrowed an e-audiobook from another public library.  Although this version is definitely longer (11 hours, 23 minutes duration) and its description in the library catalog describes it as unabridged, it turns out it is not (although I did learn from the description that Nemo is Latin for "no one" - how appropriate!)

I do agree with a 2003 AudioFile review that "Michael Prichard's deep, pleasant voice does no accents for the three languages involved [English, French, and the language invented by Captain Nemo for his crew] but, nevertheless, captures the action and drama of this classic novel."  I do feel Prichard did well distinguishing between the four main characters (the French professor Pierre Arronax, his servant Conseil, the English-speaking Canadian harpoonist Ned Land, and Nemo).  However, the quality of the audio was poor.  Nevertheless, the book met my need to understand a little more of the story.

Finally, I compared some passages in this so-called unabridged audiobook to a 1991 translation by Emanuel Mickel of Verne's original work (written in French and published in 1869 and 1871), available at my university library.  I found a lot had been cut in the audiobook.

Indeed, Mickel explains (near the end of his 63-page introduction) that  Verne's work was drastically cut, 25% or more, in translations and in French in 1928, after his death.  Hardest hit were long scientific passages where he names or describes fish and other marine life, as well as archaelogy, geology, and exploration history, and much of the dialogue (some of which is humorous).  According to Mickel (page 61-62),

These sections are so severely truncated that the emphasis of the novel is shifted in a fundamental way.  Those chapters and parts...that deal with scientific topics give the novel its weight and balance.  They draw the reader away from the fast-paced adventure narrative to issues of greater intellectual significance.

Mickel's unabridged version also has chronologies (of Verne's life and of the events in the book) as well as an eleven-page bibliography, and extensive footnotes throughout the text.  The latter are especially helpful in explaining names and places Verne mentions with which the modern reader might not be familiar.

Verne's novel is remarkable for the way it predicted some technologies we take for granted today.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

524-525 (2015 #81-82). A Couple Blah Children's Books

[This is post number 500 on this blog!]

Felicity the Dragon, by Ruthie Briggs- Greenberg, is a fantasy picture book sent to me to review by the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It has a nice message about being yourself and helping others even if you are "different," but the forced rhyming and unremarkable amateurish illustrations make it mediocre at best.  I'll be adding it to my university's curriculum collection, but only because I didn't have to buy it.

I recently selected the audiobook of the 2014 Newbery Medalist, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, by Kate DiCamillo for my university library's collection, and this one falls into the "unfinished" category.  I'm not really surprised, because I HATED DiCamillo's other Newbery Medalist (in 2004), The Tales of Despereaux.

Although I LOVED actress Tara Sands' reading of The Language of Flowers, her voice really started to grate on me with this audiobook.  So much so, combined with the annoying characters and ridiculous plot, that with the last sentence of chapter 43 (on page 144 of the hardbound print copy), when the main character, ten year old Flora, describes her mother's romance writing to her pet squirrel Ulysses as "sickly sweet nonsense" and realizes "yes, it was treacle," I realized I was tired of this treacle too, and gave up on the book.

I suppose that the silliness of this book will appeal to young readers, but I cringe to think that this was considered "the most distinguished American children's book published" in 2013.  The print copy of the book has a number of whimsical pencil illustrations by K. G. Campbell, and I suppose those add to the book's appeal for most children.  Some of the illustrations are in comic book format, and the audiobook narration adds superhero music and a description of what is occurring in those sparsely-texted panels that would be helpful for struggling readers.  The book is written at about a fourth-grade reading level.

© Amanda Pape - 2015

[I received a hardbound copy of Felicity the Dragon through the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program in exchange for a review.  It will be donated to my university library, which is also where I borrowed and returned both a print and audiobook copy of Flora & Ulysses.]

515 (2015 #72). Bug in a Vacuum

by Mélanie Watt

This is a wonderful picture book that not only has an amusing story about an insect (and a dog's toy) sucked up into a vacuum cleaner, but also a primer on the Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of grief, as the bug (and the dog) go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance in turn.

This book could be used with many ages to explain the stages of grief and help one going through death or another loss, disappointment, or traumatic event.  The very first page (even before the title page) sets the stage:

Bug (buhg)

• An insect

• An unexpected glitch

Vacuum (vak-yoom)

• A cleaning machine

• A void left by a loss

Each stage of grief is presented as a household item.  Denial is a can of repellent spray that “wipes out the ugly truth.” Bargaining is a box of detergent to “wash away your troubles.” Anger is a frozen dinner that is “quick and messy.” Despair is a book with "an unfair tale with an unhappy ending." Acceptance is a box of "gentle and comforting" facial tissues.  Then the reader sees the bug's reactions to each stage inside the vacuum cleaner, and the dog's reaction just outside it.

Mélanie Watt uses mixed media to create a winsome bug (and dog) against a background of old-style furnishings and equipment (like the vacuum cleaner). Children will enjoy spotting items, on the floor in the earlier pages, inside the vacuum cleaner (and used in delightful ways by the bug) as the story progresses.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[I received this hardbound edition through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to my university library's collection.]

506 (2015 #63). The Storm in the Barn

written and illustrated by Matt Phelan

This graphic novel won the 2010 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction written for children or young adults.  It was also a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee in 2011-2012.

It's set in Dust Bowl Kansas in 1937, and it hasn't rained in four years, since now-11-year-old Jack would have been old enough to help around on the family farm.  Since there's no farming possible, Jack's father seems to perceive Jack as being useless.  Being picked on by the town bullies doesn't help.  The general store owner tells him stories of Jacks of folklore to bolster him.  His sister Dorothy suffers from dust pneumonia, and it seems the only bright spot is when she reads aloud from some of Frank Baum's Oz books. Like Oz, the only illustrations in the book that are not monochrome occur when Jack's mother reminisces about the past.

Otherwise, Phelan's pencil, ink, and watercolor drawings use muted tones, browns and beiges in the daytime, and blues and grays at night, inside the barn, and during the rain that finally comes.  In an author's note at the end, Phelan says some of his inspiration was the black-and-white images of Works Progress Administration photographers of the era such as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.  He wrote,  "I began to imagine what the experience of living in the Dust Bowl must have been like through the eyes of a kid. Without the complicated explanation of the history of over-planting, soil erosion, and other factors, a young boy or girl would only know ... The rain had gone away. But where?"

While graphic novels are often good for struggling readers, the sparseness of the text in this story might be difficult for some.  I had problems interpreting what was going on in a few of the textless panel sequences.  For this reason - and because of a (thankfully not-too-graphic) section about killing off jackrabbits that were overwhelming the area - I'd recommend this book for somewhat older readers, age 11 and up.  I didn't really care for the fantasy element in the book (the "storm in the barn" pictured on the cover), but that will make the book more appealing for children.

© Amanda Pape - 2015

[This book was borrowed from and returned to the Hood County Library.]

504 (2015 #61). InvisiBill

by Maureen Fergus,
illustrated by Dušan Petričić

This is a cute and funny book that not only addresses feelings of being ignored, but also the distractions of modern life (tablets, telephones, televisions) that often keep parents and siblings from paying attention to each other.

In Maureen Fergus' story, middle child Bill turns invisible one day when his busy family doesn't pass the potatoes at the dinner table when he asks for them.

Dušan Petričić's caricature-like illustrations, rendered in pen and ink and colored in Photoshop, add greatly to the humor - and message - of the tale.  I especially liked the way he placed his illustrations on square or rectangular backgrounds that sometimes overlapped in interesting ways.

This book should appeal to all children - those who wonder what it might be like to be invisible, and those who sometimes wish they were noticed a little more.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[This book was received through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.   It will be donated to my university library.]

489-491 (2015 #46-48). Three Christian Fiction Picture Books

To be fair and balanced - here are three picture books from my local public library with the subject heading of "Christian fiction."

God Gave Us You, by Lisa Tawn Bergren, is the first of a series of "God Gave Us..." books featuring a family of polar bears.  It provides a way to answer the "where did I come from" question of a very young child with a God-centered answer.  Illustrator Laura J. Bryant used watercolors to produce her soft yet color-filled images.

Just in Case You Ever Wonder is by San Antonio minister Max Lucado.  In it, a parent tells a child how special she is, both to the parent and to God.  I wasn't particularly impressed with the style of illustrations by Toni Goffe.  However, this book won the Gold Medallion Award (now the Christian Book Award) "in recognition of excellence in evangelical Christian literature presented by ECPA" - the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

The book I liked best was Making Memories, by Janette Oke, a well-known writer of Christian fiction.  A grandfather answers his grandson's question about making memories by giving examples using four of five senses (sight, smell, sound, and touch - although it would have been easy enough to add taste).  This one is a bit heavy on text, but that is offset by the gorgeous glowing illustrations by Cheri Bladholm (who, sadly, does not seem to have a website).

Unfortunately this book is out of print and I could not get a good cover image (just the small one at left), but above is one of the illustrations from inside the book. The lovely farm settings were inspired by Bladholm's home in upstate New York.

© Amanda Pape - 2015

[These books were borrowed from and returned to my local public library.]

482 (2015 #39). Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs

by Davide Cali,
illustrated by Raphaëlle Barbanègre

This is a "fractured folktale" retelling of the Snow White story, but in this case, Snow has moved in with 77 dwarfs, not just seven.  This leads to a number of problems, from learning their (hilarious!) names...

...to trying to keep up with the chores, from beard maintenance to breakfast coffee.  French-Canadian artist Raphaëlle Barbanègre's colorful, whimsical illustrations add a lot to the story - especially Snow's facial expressions! (Click on the illustrations for enlarged views.)

Swiss-born Italian Davide Cali has written a slightly feminist take on the traditional tale with a twist at the end that might be over the heads of (or possibly upsetting to) the 3- to 7-year-olds this book is supposedly designed for.  However, I could definitely see using this book in a second grade classroom in my state, where students are supposed to "compare different versions of the same story in traditional and contemporary folktales with respect to their characters, settings, and plot."

© Amanda Pape - 2015

[I received this hardbound edition from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to the curriculum collection at my university library.]

473 (2015 #30). The Pirate's Bed

by Nicola Winstanley,
illustrated by Matt James

This is a fantasy picture book about a bed separated from its pirate owner in a shipwreck.  The bed has some interesting experiences for a while, but then becomes lonely.  I loved the ending of this book!

Nicola Winstanley apparently wrote this book to encourage her toddler son to stay in bed at night.  She uses some vocabulary that will be above the intended audience for this book, so I think it would be best for a read-aloud (or a bedtime story).

Matt James illustrated the book using acrylic paint and India ink on board.  The illustrations are busy and colorful and look like they could have been done by a little boy (such as scary-looking sharks or whales with lots of teeth), which is fitting for the story.


© Amanda Pape - 2015

[I received this hardbound edition from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to the curriculum collection at my university library.]