Lighthouse Christmas

"We both want Christmas, Frances thought. So why did people have to live in lonely places like Ledge Light?"

Frances and her little brother Peter are especially lonely this Christmas. Their mother died in the spring and their father has taken a job transfer, moving their little family from the mainland lighthouse to one "in the middle of the ocean." Peter is determined that Christmas will come one way or another and sets out to "plan" it with cheerful drawings of his holidays dreams; cookies, carols around Aunt Martha's piano, candy canes and an evergreen tree. Frances doesn't say it, but an empty pantry and a delayed supply boat don't bode well. She carries on, never dashing Peter's hopes, but not overly optimistic either.

I found this book on the NY Times Review page several weeks ago when I was trolling for children's holiday literature. What can I say about this wonderful little story? Nancy Carpenter's illustrations are done with a limited palette that captures a bygone era. Frances, in her cropped hair and white pinafore is the perfect mix of brave and vulnerable. Snuggled up to a chubby, one-eyed cat with his crayons and paper, Peter is a little boy so filled with hope and optimism, your heart aches for him.

Writer Toni Buzzeo is to be commended for having just the right touch, taking what could have been a sentimental, overwrought tale and weaving something heartfelt and fresh. A Christmas miracle arrives in the form of a special package dropped from a plane piloted by a "flying Santa". A little bit of history about the "Flying Santa Service" follows at the end of the book.

"Lighthouse Christmas" will take its place among my favorites. It is a delight and one I look forward to revisiting each year. To keep or share, "Lighthouse Christmas" is a treasure. 

Lighthouse Christmas

written by Toni Buzzeo

illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Till Death do us Bark; Book Three of the 43 Old Cemetery Road Series

Seymour, Olive and Ignatius have worked hard to overcome obstacles and keep their little family together, but adding a dog to the mix (especially one that barks all the time) may prove to be too much. So Seymour takes Secret and disappears.

Secret owner's and Ghastly's eccentric millionaire, Noah Breth has just passed away and left a cryptic will written in limericks for his two squabbling children to fight over. Neither of them has a nice thing to say about their father or each other. Maybe they were part of a family once, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. In the meantime, Olive and Ignatius search for their missing son.

Again, Kate and M. Sarah Klise have constructed a wonderful story out of letters, newspaper articles, legal documents and delightful drawings. The mystery of a lost coin thickens the plot.

Will Seymour and Secret return to Spence Mansion? Will Ignatius lighten up on his dislike of dogs? Will Olive's cat pose a problem? Will flaring tempers, angry words and feuding get in the way of everyone's happiness? Will Olive, Ignatius and Seymour reunite in time to finish the next three chapters of "43 Old Cemetery Road"?

Read the book and you'll find out.

Finally, Kids Get Some Answers!

Eat your vegetables. Drink your milk. Don't bite your fingernails or pick your nose.

Sure, we've all been told these things and given reasons like: vegetables are good for you; picking your nose is "disgusting", but are those the real reasons? Writer-illustrator David Wisniewski has gone undercover to find out the hidden truth behind these age-old warnings and what he discovers isn't pretty. In this book, he opens his secret files and shines a spot-light on the truth.

Disguised as an eggplant, Wisniewski infiltrates the American Produce Council and finds out that eating vegetables is the only way "to keep them under control!"

"Millions of years ago, vegetables ruled the earth. Big bunches of broccoli stomped through the jungles, followed by ferocious carrots and savage packs of peas. Huge heads of lettuce roamed the grasslands and giant celery stalked the plains.

And what were these terrible vegetables looking for?

You guessed it.....People! Yes, these were meat-eating vegetables."

But then our ancestors discovered sticks, stones and fire and the rein of terror came to an end in the form or soups, salads and steamed asparagus. Whew!

Read the rest to see Wisniewski's other wacky disguises and startling discoveries. The super colorful, over the top, collage-like illustrations make this irresistible page turner a good book for reluctant readers. The laugh-out-loud rules and their reasons are great fodder for creative writers who want to come up with additional "rules". The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups is a fun look at the not-so-innocent origins of all those childhood warnings.

The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups

written and Illustrated by David Wisniewski 

Wings Soars

 

"Ikarus Jackson, the fly boy,  came to my school last Thursday. His long, strong, proud wings followed where he went."

But people don't get it. They snicker and sneer and drive Ikarus to the top of an apartment building to sit "with the pigeons." Because "pigeons don't make fun of people." In a sort of "emporer's new clothes" moment, a young girl calls out "what someone should have long ago: "Your flying is beautiful."" That seems to be what Ikarus needs to break free of his self-doubts and insecurities and soar.

Christopher Myers' collages have an Ezra Jack Keats meets Romare Bearden feel to them. Look closer and images appear within the images. I wondered about the significance of these secondary images, but not knowing made them all the more appealing.

Wings is a book to explore and enjoy.

Wings

written and illustrated by Christopher Myers

A Tale Told in Topiaries

Grandpa Green picks up a pair of gardening shears and shapes the story of his life; from his childhood on a farm, through the war, marriage and children. His great grandson tells the story, narrating each scene in Grandpa Green's magical garden.

"Now he's pretty old," the grandson tells us, as he swings from gnarled tree, "and he sometimes forgets things like his favorite floppy straw hat. But the important stuff, the garden remembers for him."

And in its evergreen way, the garden (and the stories) thrive, continuing on as the seasons and years progress.

Lane Smith's artistic vision gives us a fresh look at life's large and small moments. The garden is an apt metaphor for the changing and changeless nature of life. Smith juxtaposes line drawings and lush watercolor scenes. The result is unique and eye-catching. Young readers will enjoy the story. Adults will identify with it. This is a book that appeals to all ages. 

Grandpa Green
written and illustrated by Lane Smith

Rip the Page! Adventures in Creative Writing

 

Be sure to keep a pad of Post-its with you as you read this book. You'll want to mark page after page of these playful exercises. Author Benke encourages creative writers to:

-be "curious about everything around you for a few minutes" each day (p. 24). This segues into a wonderful, meditation-like exercise in transforming the "awful, terrible, no-good" of the world with a breath.

-wonder "how things began"by writing a "favorite number, letter, punctuation mark...on a page and...imagining what it looks like, what or who it used to be, where it likes to hide, fly, build sand castles....maybe even how it moves and what it has to climb to get a better view of the sea or sky. You can also include what your number, letter punctuation mark isn't, never was, never will be." (p.26) This is a fun twist on an exercise I've used with my students on personification of abstract nouns.

-create a simple "list" poem with a dozen or so ideas to start with (p.111).

The exercises can be used to start the creative process or take it to a finished piece. Benke's delightful book is sparkling with fresh ideas and fun ways to use them.

Owl Moon

"When you go owling

you don't need words

or warm

or anything but hope."

Jane Yolen's Owl Moon is a story that could be a poem.  In it, a young boy ventures out for a night of owling with his father.  We don't know where they are but we do know tree shadows "stain" the snow.  And the moon is so bright that it makes the snow below it shine "whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl".  The cold feels like "someone's icy hand...palm-down" on your back.

Yolen's lyrical text bring a quiet cadence to this story of hope and discovery.  John Schoenherr's indigo-tinged watercolors evoke all the magic of a winter night in the woods.

"If you go owling

you have to be quiet,

that's what Pa always says.

I had been waiting

to go owling with Pa

for a long, long time."

Owl Moon

written by Jane Yolen

illustrated by John Schoenherr

43 Old Cemetery Road: Book One - Dying to Meet You

Dear Olive,

When I moved into your house, I thought I'd made a terrible mistake.  The last thing I wanted was an 11-year-old boy and his cat to babysit for the summer.

But Olive, you showed me what it means to care for someone again....

This book had me at the cover.  I couldn't resist the whimsical drawing of the haunted old house or the character standing in front of it dressed in a plaid coat with a messenger bag draped across his shoulder.  His name is Ignatius B. Grumply.  He is a writer with a "wicked case of writer's block".  He has rented the house at number 43 for the summer to work on a long overdue novel.  

Ignatius doesn't count on the house being occupied by Seymour, his cat, Shadow and a resident ghost, Olive.  Will Seymour drive Ignatius crazy?  Will Olive scare him out of the house?  Will the novel ever get written?

Kate and Sarah Klise have written and illustrated a wonderful story told in letters, drawings and newspaper articles.  On the surface, it's a children's book about a haunted house and the people who inhabit it.  On a deeper level, it's a story of three lonely people and how they connect to themselves, and each other.  

I loved this book.  Good news - there are two more in the series and book four comes out in May of 2012!!

43 Old Cemetery Road:  Book One

Dying to Meet You

written and illustrated by Kate and M. Sarah Klise

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

From his perch behind the clock, Hugo could see everything.  He rubbed his fingers nervously against the small notebook in his pocket and told himself to be patient.

The old man in the toy booth was arguing with the girl.  She was about Hugo's age, and he often saw her go into the booth with a book under her arm and disappear behind the counter.  

The old man looked agitated today.  Had he figured out some of his toys were missing?  Well, there was nothing to be done about that now.

Hugo needed the toys.

Hugo Cabret is the perfect book to read in bed.  

Brian Selznick's dreamy illustrations are the perfect format for this tale of orphans, old movies, train stations and wound down clocks. The charcoal drawings have a nighttime feel.  The darkened cinema is a stage set for Hugo, Isabelle and Papa Georges to uncover hidden strengths, secret longings and old desires.  

The idea of going to the movies made Hugo remember something Father had once told him about going to the movies when he was just a boy, when the movies were new.  Hugo's father had stepped into a dark room and, on a white screen, he had seen a rocket fly right into the eye of the man in the moon.  Father said he had never experienced anything like it.  It had been like seeing his dreams in the middle of the day.

Or the night.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

written and illustrated by Brian Selznick

Here's a link to the movie trailer:

http://www.theinventionofhugocabret.com/movie_trailer.h

The Best Halloween Ever

They were around every corner and behind every tree on Halloween.  They didn't dress up--they didn't have to, because they looked like Halloween all the time.  Sometimes kids even dressed up like them.  They didn't go trick-or-treating--but they didn't have to do that either as long as everyone else did, collecting candy and gum and money for the Herdmans to take away from them.
 

Bring on the tricks-or-treats...or maybe just the tricks.  Fans of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will love this tale of the Herdmans at Halloween!

The Best Halloween Ever
written by Barbara Robinson   

The Stranger

Farmer Bailey could not help noticing how peculiar the weather had been.  Not long ago it seemed that autumn was just around the corner.  But now it still felt like summer, as if the seasons couldn't change.  The warm days made the pumpkins grow larger than ever.  The leaves on the trees were as green as they'd been three weeks before.

I can't help noticing, either.  The calendar says fall but summer goes on and on; ninety degree days, sweltering humidity, afternoon thunderstorms.  The celestial clock that governs these things seems to have stopped. 

I have loved Van Allsburg's The Stranger since I first read it to my own children years ago.  The illustrations are just as thrilling and mysterious to me now as they were then.  When the stranger gently blows across a spoonful of soup, Mrs. Bailey shivers.  

I do too.

The Stranger

written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

A Child's Calendar

Ripe fruit, old footballs, drying grass...read "September" from A Child's Calendar by John Updike. 

P.S.  Suzanne N., thank you for the heads up on this wonderful book!!

A Child's Calendar

written by John Updike

illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

The Stray Dog

     

"Let's take Willy home," said the children.

"No," said the father.

"He must belong to somebody," explained the mother, "and they would miss him."

You will fall in love with Willy.  You will fall in love with the tender illustrations in this book, especially the ones of Willy running, fetching, fleeing.  You will want to take off your hair ribbon and make a leash for Willy just like the girl in the story does.  Will that convince the dog catcher that Willy isn't a stray? 

Is Willy a metaphor for the way our hearts can run wild and lost in the world?  Aren't we all looking for a place to call "home"?  Isn't it wonderful when we find that?  Or can be that for someone else?

The Stray Dog

written and illustrated by Marc Simont