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