Fuse #8 Top 100 Middle Grade Book Poll

I was thrilled when Betsy Bird, librarian and Fuse #8 blogger, asked her readers to vote for their top ten (in order) middle grade books of all time. I dutifully cast my votes and received a very nice email back thanking me. (I almost printed the email, it felt a bit like a celebrity autograph!)

Middle grade was when so many of us fell down into the rabbit hole of reading and many of us have never climbed back out. I couldn't wait to see the picks! So far Betsy has listed books 81-100.

But this is much more than a list, dear friends. In true Betsy Bird form, she has over-delivered and I am over the moon! If you haven't checked out this list, what are you waiting for? Not only does Betsy give us background on the authors, a synopsis of the book and insights into the characters, Betsy also provides us with copies of every cover ever published.

Today's post has books 81-85. Who knew that #85 On The Banks Of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder has had 6 different covers! Way to go Half-Pint! Which one did you read? Was this one your favorite? This is the cover I had and I loved it. Remember the *dugout* house? I was so jealous. Why didn't Ma and the girls properly appreciate the dugout? Why did Pa have to buy all those building supplies on credit for a two-story regular old boring house when they had a perfectly good dugout? And it is when Nellie Oleson came on the scene, the ultimate prarie foe. I don't remember disliking her in the book as much as I did on the TV show. I am looking forward to seeing which 80 are in still to be revealed! Thanks Betsy!

Freshly-Brewed Monday Book Recommendation #6!- The Small Adventures of Popeye and Elvis

The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis

by Barbara O'Connor

A Small Adventure is a wonderful thing.

"Mom, where are our set-up army guys?"

The set-up army guys aren't really all army guys. They are mostly army guys (some green and some tan), with a few civil war soldiers (some blue some gray) and a couple of yellow and red Native American Indians. The cowboys are gone. And all the guys are tiny, plastic and their feet melt into a small puddle that helps them stand steady, sort of.

My three boys, sometimes with a friend or two, strategically place all the set-up guys throughout a dry dirt path that winds its way through a massive amount of ivy in our backyard. Once everyone agrees that all the set-up guys are in the right place- in the creek-bed, on a flat rock, under a droopy leaf, the faucet gets cranked on and the hose introduces a whole new element into the game. Sometimes it's a slow drip, sometimes its more torrential but it's always fun and they never tire of it.  

 The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis is about finding something to do. Something different, something unusual, something that makes today special. Popeye lives a slow-paced life in Fayette, North Carolina with his Grandma Velma who "he needed not to crack up because no one else was very good at taking care of things. Not his father who lived in Chatanooga and sold smoke-damaged rugs out of the back of a pick-up truck. Not his mother who came and went but never told anbody where she came from or where she went to. And definitely not Uncle Dooley, who lived in a rusty trailer in the backyard and sometimes worked at the meatpacking plant and sometimes sold aluminum siding and sometimes watched TV all day."

When a Holiday Rambler, filled with a boisterous excitable family, gets stuck in the mud while cruising through town, Popeye meets his new friend, Elvis. The two decide that what they need is a small adventure, and soon the boys come upon boats made out of paper yoo-hoo cartons floating down a creek with hidden messages tucked inside. The boys must figure out what the notes mean, who is sending them and they must do it fast, before the Holiday Rambler is out of the mud and Elvis's family rolls on out of Fayette.

The simplicity of Barbara O'Connor's writing is refreshing and clean. This is a great little new book that feels like classic. In my opinion, that is a hard find for an early chapter book that appeals to boys. A hidden little perk are the vocabulary words Popeye's Grandma Velma is memorizing: cajole, divert and connive just to name a few.

My 9 yr. old and 6 yr. old both loved it as a read-aloud. Plenty to giggle about with a touch a mystery. It might even inspire you to set out on a small adventure of you own, something that might even be more fun than the army set-up guys!   

In Which Neil Gaiman reads me a bedtime story

He did! He really did! My husband was sitting next to me and so were hundreds of other people at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, but last night Neil Gaiman read excerpts of The Graveyard Book to me! The show started at 8 and ended around 10 and I am often asleep by then so it was like an honest-to-goodness bedtime story!

Wow!! Thanks Neil!!! It's nice to be read to for once. Could we do that again sometime?

He also read a bit of something new he's working on- a piece about horror and English Seaside Hotels. It was not-surprisingly amazing and creepy and funny and very Neil Gaiman.

Hooked already? I know, right?  

Jason and I agreed that our favorite was an excerpt about a story of a crippled boy, a bear, a fox and an eagle, entitled Odd and the Frost Giants, that he wrote as a "world book." What is a world book you ask? Neil explained that world books are part of a charitable initiative in the UK and Ireland focused on providing children with the experience of going into a bookstore, choosing and purchasing a book. The organization responsible for this chooses authors and asks them to write a children's book, no longer than 100 pages. The authors receive no payment for these books and the publisher publishes them at no cost. Each school-age child is given 2 tokens. Each world book costs 1 token and children go crazy picking out their two new books. Children in the UK and Ireland love this time of year, when the new world books are issued, and its easy to understand why when Neil Gaiman represents the caliber of authors to pen these books. 

The last half hour was a Q & A. My favorite quote of the night was in response to a question. Someone asked Neil if he outlines or just starts writing and keeps writing until he's done. He said, without a doubt, he just writes. He said he realized that "to some that seems like jumping out of a plane and then knitting your parachute on the way down" but that's how he's always done it and that's what works best.

Being a parachute-knitter myself, I loved that answer!

Beta Readers!

I'm going to indulge the writer-me and tell a little bit about my journey. My middle grade novel first draft is complete. I guess I should call it a first draft. But in reality I have combed over the entire 225 pages at least 7 or eight times. Re-configuring things, moving scenes to and fro, turning narrative portions into dialogue and just generally obsessing.

What's weird about this process is that one day I can read the whole manuscript in one sitting and go, "That was amazing! Some agent/editor is going to LOVE this. Maybe? Right?" And then the very next day, I can read a few pages and go, "That is so ridiculously bad I can't believe I even call myself a writer!" It is a lonely, head-spinning way to spend your days.

That is until you get to the beta reader phase. What is a beta reader you ask? A beta reader is the first humanoid, other than yourself, who gets to read your stuff. And boy, is it weird to serve yourself up on a platter. Just like that. Here I am. All my best thoughts, efforts, words strung together as sentences, sentences strung together as scenes, scenes strung together as chapters and chapters strung together as if a cohesive plot really lives in those pages. I love to world build and create something out of nothing, but what if its a heap of dung beetle stew?

So that's where I am.

My manuscript is out there- with Beta #1 and Beta #2, who shall remain nameless. I am eternally grateful that they exist on this planet simultaneous to my existence because handing over my book felt ok and safe, but I'm waiting on pins and needles to get the book back!

Magic for Haiti!

I am one proud Mama today. After watching a bit of the Haiti telethon and the different musicians who were performing, my oldest son said, "I could do something like that, I could perform magic for Haiti." That night, by bedtime, "Magic for Haiti' had moved from a little idea to a fully-fleshed out plan. My nine-year old would perform the magic, my six-year old would be in charge or refreshments and my four year old would cheer for one brother and help the other one by eating.

We picked Partners in Health (PIH) because $.92 of each dollar goes to immediate relief efforts. PIH already had hundreds of staff in Haiti and 12 hospitals that were unaffected by the earthquake. We made flyers and if we had looked over the PIH website more carefully, could have used their evite system. But the handmade orange paper ones were fun too.

We also used the PIH thank you notes and posters to decorate the backyard.

The turn-out was incredible- neighbors, friends, family filled the backyard and the Magic Show was perfect! Two buddies from school joined the Main Magician on the stage and added a few fun tricks to the mix and all the tricks brought oohs and aahs from the enthusiastic crowd! At the end we raised $515.75- and as my boys like to point out... But what does that equal, Mom? That equals 1719 hot meals, 171 warm blankets or 51 medical kits!

The next morning my magician woke up and said, "Mom, tell me when there's another disaster and we can do another show, OK?"

"OK!"

That's my boy. THANK YOU EVERYBODY!!!!

Freshly-Brewed Monday Book Recommendation #5!- Melonhead

This has nothing at all to do with the book, but it's funny, right?

Melonhead? Get it?

Here's the Real Melonhead!


Melonhead by Katy Kelly

This book is silly. Silly, Silly Silly. I knew it made me giggle as I read it to my three boys but when my husband wanted in on the action and took over at Chapter 14, I could not believe the joyous squeals and yeehs of glee coming from their bedroom. Laughter is good for the soul and we all need more of it. Introducing Melonhead.

Melonhead, starring Adam Melon, is a spin-off from Katy Kelly's popular series about Lucy Rose. Nine-year old Melonhead and his friend Sam have a way of finding trouble and the book jumps right in. Melonhead's foot is stuck in a tree and he must be rescued by firefighters and eventually a cherry-picker with the "jaws of life." Adam has a goofy sense of humor that permeates the book and all his relationships. This book will likely appeal to kids who enjoy Stink and Fudge and other books in the "troublemaker" vein. The only comment I have that is less than positive is that the boys always seemed to have pockets full of name-brand candy and cereal. It just didn't seem necessary to mention the sugar fuel and the name brands. But that is a very small drawback for an otherwise funny, silly, feel-good type book.  

I also loved that it was set in Washington D.C. and there are several very interesting supporting characters.

The Best Snowy Picture Books!

IT"S SNOWING Y'ALL!!!

OK, so it's just a little powdered sugar dusting on the top of the San Gabriel Mountains, and it'll be melted by noon, but isn't it pretty? This was our view out our bedroom window on this fine January morning. To celebrate our very first snow, I thought I'd do a post on my very favorite snowy picture books!

My very favorite snowy picture book of all time (and probably yours too) is A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. (also one of the coolest author names of all time too, don't you think?) This one won the Caldecott in 1963. Ezra Jack Keats wrote many amazing books. He was the son of two Polish immigrants and was determined to put an African American child as the protaganist in his first book, so as to truly reflect the neighborhoods where he grew up in New York City. He also wrote books Puerto-Rican protagonists and fought to have some printed in Spanish. Peter (shown here on the cover) went on to appear in six more picture books by Ezra.

 This has got to be one of the sweetest illustrations ever created. My boys barely even know what snow is but when we break this book out somehow they know it requires deep-in-the-covers positioning before we crack the cover.

Ezra was yet another author/illustrator who was allowed to scribble and draw wherever he darn pleased. (I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, I swear, I'm talking to me!) I'm trying to stay open-minded about what can keep the creative spirit alive! See here for more guilt, I mean inspiration!

You rock Ezra!

Now for my NEW favorite snowy picture book and when I say new I mean hot off the presses. Santa brought it last week and we are loving it!

The Stickman by the dynamic duo of Axel Sheffler, illustrator extraordinaire and Julia Donaldson, author/rhyme queen. She always pulls off her rhymes with out corniness or clunk and the Stickman - well, let's just say anthropomorphism never looked so good! You are going to love this guy! And his wife, the Sticklady, has a bark dress to die for- tres chic! I tried to get a photo but I couldn't find one. Get a copy for that alone!

The poor Stickman, first the dog is after him, then the bird wants to make him part of her nest, then to a sand castle to be a mast, oh the poor poor Stickman! But never fear, Santa will help the Stickman! Also, one of our favorite treats, there is a hidden Gruffalo somewhere in the book, see if you can find it. (The Gruffalo, and Room on the Broom are two more favorites by this duo that we adore too.)

Hooray for Snowy Books! Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!