Bored. Bored bored bored. Bored.

Sunrise today was at 5:32 a.m., sunrise will be at 8:40 p.m.! Last Monday night, when I got home from bookgroup at about 9:45, the sky was still ruddy over the Olympic mountains to the west. Long twilights are a true joy.  

View from the window where my computer is living this week

Today is a quiet, wet, late spring day, highs in the mid-60s; yesterday was blue skies, mid-80s, sweaty weather.  We are having our downstairs bathroom remodeled and D and I are hunkering in our upstairs rooms for the next 5 days.  We've both taken vacation time to be here for this so we can let the workers in and out, but it doesn't feel very vacationy. It was really a sudden decision - dry rot under the toilet dictates when something like this happens - so I still have a rep appointment on Wednesday and book deliveries to schools for the Northwest Literacy Foundation. I've been in contact with work a couple of times. Sigh,

I've set up my laptop in the bedroom on a tv tray, radio in the background, to work on book orders for the fall season.  But, truly, looking at all that data, scrolling through book after book can be daunting.  One publisher has almost a thousand titles! I don't have to look at them all in depth, but most take three different key strokes and a lot of track ball moves. My butt hurts and I really want to weed the path that runs along the west side of the house.  But it's raining.

And with a house full of unread books, and uncleared shelves and closets,  I shouldn't be bored.  But I am.  

So, I guess I am going to drag that stack of books on the bedside table onto the bed and see what screams, "READ ME!!!".  I saw a new book in the store the other day and ordered it up from the library:  Luna: New Moon (Ballantine), by Ian McDonald.  The first few pages were gripping and maybe if I read it when I'm trying not to go to sleep, I will have better luck with the rest of it.  It should be good; any book that starts with a moon run (out in the airless atmosphere, 10 seconds, unprotected) ought to be. 

There are six other books in that stack including Maggie Stiefvater's Raven King (Scholastic) which I have been hoarding for a day just like this one.  It's like saving that last piece of chocolate for the perfect moment.  Will that moment ever come?  Will the chocolate just go stale? Am I just afraid that this really will be the last book in the series so I don't want to read it because then it really will be over?

New to the stack, as of last Thursday, is the third book in the Jackaby series, Ghostly Echoes (Algonquin), by Springfield, Oregon middle school teacher, William Ritter. This series is so much fun and so funny this book might just be the perfect diversion for a gray and cold afternoon.

Well, when I finally make that decision to spend the next few hours submerged in a completely world, I'll let you know how it went.

More Books for Grown-ups

Sunrise today was at 7:57, sunrise was at 4:33.

View of Smith Tower from Yesler (Bail Bond Lane)

One of the things I see on my walk to the ferry is Smith Tower.  The beacon atop this historic building is something I aim for every morning; it makes me happy to see it, it's kind of comforting.  I can see it from our kitchen window, and it only blinks out of sight when I am behind a very few buildings along Rainier and when heading east up the start of the Yesler Street hill.

Smith Tower (for those of you who don't live in Seattle) was one of the first skyscrapers (at 42 stories), one of the tallest buildings in the world outside of New York City.  Granted, this was 1914 and a lot has changed since then.  It's a beautiful white terra cotta building with bronze window sashes and the best views of the city in the city.  Above the office building itself, there is a pyramid-shaped 4 story apartment, and above that is an immense globe with a light bulb.  It's a lot like a lighthouse:  a relatively small bulb reflecting in a glass globe to magnify its light.

Mostly it's white, sometimes it's purple (Go Dawgs), and for a good long time it's green.  I always look forward to the green season, the advent of the Christmas and winter holidays.  Usually, on the day after Thanksgiving, the big white star on the building atop Beacon Hill's Veteran's building is lit up and the light on the top of the Smith Tower becomes green.  I love that.

This year, I noticed on the Monday after Thanksgiving, that the light hadn't yet been lit, the bulb was dark.  I figured they must have been changing the bulb and looked forward to the later lighting of the globe.  Tuesday morning, still no lit light.  So, I ran into a man mopping the front entryway to the building and told him the light was out.  He looked at me as if I was a little crazy but said, "Okay.  I'll look into it."  Imagine what he'd have to go through to change the bulb!

The next day it was still dark, but that night, on the ferry going home, there it was!  All alight and green, floating above the skyline, slightly to the right of the rest of the city.  Finally! Yes, I am totally sure that I am the reason we had a green light for the holiday season.  

It's still up there, all green and beautiful, and I've never really noticed when it goes back to its "regular" color.  Maybe on the 12th day of Christmas?  Epiphany?  I'll notice this year!  It'll be the first thing I see standing in the dark windows, drinking my coffee.

A few more favorite books for grown-ups - again, they are listed in order of when read, not by how much I loved them.  To repeat something I wrote a very long time ago:  I don't write about books I wouldn't buy for my family.  I don't have the time (or the desire) to read something that doesn't captivate me immediately.  That's why it seems like I love (almost) everything I read; I just don't read the others! 

Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter, is a wonderful story of love and loss, landscape and beauty.  A young Italian innkeeper falls in love with a dying movie star taking refuge in his tiny town.  Years later, an elderly Italian man appears in a movie lot looking for the producer of the movie the starlet was in.  What happens between these two moments makes for a lovely and sweet story of lives lived, loved, lost and found. HarperCollins.  $25.99.  Available now.

Little Century, by Anna Keesey, is the story of Esther Chambers, a recent orphan in search of her single remaining relative, a cow-man living on the eastern Oregon frontier.  When Esther arrives, her cousin Ferris already has plans for her inclusion in claiming lands that hold a local watering hole, one that the local sheep ranchers use.  Esther is a woman with a strong sense of right and wrong and she very well could be the hinge of a range war between the cattle- and sheep-men.  Again, great landscape writing, really wonderful history, and great characters.  Farrar Straus and Giroux.  $26.00.  Available now.

Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan.  Wow!  Talk about brain mysteries!  Susannah, a 24 year-old New York journalist, finds a couple of bites on her arm and begins to obsess over bedbugs and other insects in her apartment.  She starts putting things in bags, clearing her house, not making sense to her co-workers, insisting that people are all against her.  When she is taken to the doctor, she's diagnosed with schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, both diseases that can appear in young adults of that age.  But, Susannah's problems just get worse.  She eventually has seizures that make her appear like a zombie and is hospitalized.  No one knows what's wrong with her and it isn't until an Indian doctor is brought onto the scene that her diagnoses are refuted and she is finally able to get healthy.  Brain on Fire is a great true mystery surrounding the most mysterious part of the body, the brain.  Lots of brain information, lots of history, too, and it was absolutely compelling.  Free Press.  $25.00.  Available now.

Maya's Notebook, by Isabel Allende.  I loved this book!  It would be a good cross-over novel for older teens, too.  Maya is a young woman who makes some not-so-great decisions and crosses the Las Vegas drug and money bosses and is sent into hiding.  This book is the chronicle of how she came to be living on the butt-end of a bunch of teensy islands hanging off the end of Chile.  Maya was a very loved child living with her grandparents.  When her beloved grandfather dies, she goes off the deep end drinking and drugging, eventually ending up in Las Vegas where she becomes involved with really bad people.  Eventually, her grandmother finds her and sends her to hide with her friends from the past, people who were involved in the Chilean civil wars.  More history!  More landscape!  More beautiful writing!  HarperCollins.  $28.99.  Available in May, 2013.

Okay, that's it for now.  There's been no recompense for these reviews. 

It's so hard to choose just one

Don't you love the little chicken icon?

Sunrise was at 5:23, Sunset will be at 8:50.  It's been wet for awhile but kind of warm and muggy out.  Unfortunately, we missed the eclipse as a result of the overcastedness of our weather.  Bummer.  I just weeded the yard and swept the patio last weekend and there is rampant greenery coming over the rock wall and up the fence.  Some moss, a lot of ivy and the weeds are fairly popping out of the warm and wet dirt.

There's a nest of birds in our gutter and it poured yesterday.  The young ones aren't ready to fly, yet, so I hope they're safe.

Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast

I'm going through my books.  Again.  After more than three decades of working in bookstores, 4 years of college, and a lifetime of used bookshops, grocery store racks, yard and library sales, I have no more room for books.  Oh, I'm not as bad as some people, I'm sure, but there's no way to take out a seam or let down a hem to find a little more space.  So, I pulled the couch out away from the shelves along the living room wall, sat down on the floor, and started to cull.  Books for sale here, books to keep (and re-shelve at some point) here.  Boxes of all sizes going in and out of the house, stacked precariously in the garage.

I love touching all these books, dust be damned, and I keep finding multiple copies of the same books.  I'm sure my memory of each of those books is what compels me to buy that next copy. I can't bear that it won't be taken home and cared for.  I think I now have 4 copies of Green Grass of Wyoming.  I have two, maybe three, copies of Good-Bye, My Lady.  I have at least three copies of the Gormenghast series, all of them different editions.

The best boy/dog book EVER.  Dingoes!

I have a pretty hefty pile of out of print kid's paperbacks that I keep buying because they are the old Scholastic books, the ones I remember ordering and reading from Weekly Reader or off of the Scholastic order form.  What on earth am I going to do with all of them?  I really want to send them to my nieces and nephews - these particular books were such a big part of my life and they may never get a chance to know them.  Maybe I need to send them a set of bookshelves, first!

 

Moon Over Seattle

My birthday was the other day (May 5) and D and I walked up the hill to the big park at the top.  We sat on the benches and waited for the moon to rise.  It was a beautiful evening, a little chilly, a little cloudy, but relatively still.  We could hear birds and people talking on the side streets.  We could hear 4 men and their dog, soon to be our companions on the wait, walking around the periphery of the field below us.

We waited some time for that first glimpse.  The streetlights and the house lights came on, and then the moon finally made its appearance.  It was so amazingly beautiful, orange and brilliantly lit.  Our camera doesn't take the best photos without a tripod but this is the best I could do while holding my breath.

do you see it in the trees?

We later sat out on the porch with the fountain splashing and the fire leaping and waited for the moon to come above the trees so we could watch it from the comfort of our own yard.  We tipped some of the good stuff to the earth to honor the gods and my mom, threw glitter into the air (thanks for passing along that bling gene, Mom.), and then headed in to the warmth of our little home.

(Oh, the book part of the post:  There was a fine stack of books on the bedside table:  Insurgent, Cold Cereal,  Caddy's World, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, and a DVD pack of the old Dark Shadows.  It was a Saturday and I could sleep in on Sunday; I wanted so much to read all night long and was asleep before Red Green was over.)

Why Books?

It was a dark and stormy night...

Most people would find this kind of night perfect for curling up with a book and a cup of tea, a perfect chance to read to your kids, all warm in their fuzzy jammies and slippers, propped up by pillows and stuffed animals, surrounded by a sliding stack of books to choose from. Those kids will grow up literate, able to spell and read more easily than the kids who won't be exposed to books and being read to.

Many children who don't have the opportunity to have books at home to read whenever they want, or to parents who have the energy to read aloud after a long day, will always be at a disadvantage in their schooling. Well, Page Ahead is working to change that.

The night that the Page Ahead Book Awards committee met at the Washington Mutual building featured an absolute downpour, a lot of rain even for Seattle. There were buckets of rain, bouncing knee high as it hit the streets, it was hard to see through the windshield, wind twisting the sheets of water sideways as I drove through the cross streets. The light in the streets was that yellow specifically featured in old movies, the rain glowing as the streetlamps came on all at once. Stormy, while inside the car it was cozy, dimly lit.

The Page Ahead meetings are held on the 48th floor, the Perkins Coie floor, and my ears always pop at 44. The windows in the office where we meet face the Sound and the ferries, West Seattle and the islands, and they shudder when gusts hit. It seems we are often just above jets as they fly in from the north to land at SeaTac. As awful as the weather was outside, it was warm and comfortable being in a room filled with people talking about choosing the best books for children.

Eight pages of books for us to peruse and choose from, we are looking for the single best book for children ages birth to 12: the best multicultural, read-aloud, and science books for at-risk kids. Page Ahead gives new books to kids who may never be able to own their own and studies show that children who own their own books are much better readers and so become much better students, and who knows where they will go from there?

So, we set out to choose books that could change a life, might inspire someone to become a teacher, a scientist, an astronaut, show that books can entertain as well as teach. Giving books to kids helps them to learn skills that will enable them to navigate the big, wide universe, to realize that there are other worlds out there than the ones they're in, that with what they learn they can make a difference in their lives, in others' lives.

I was from a pretty un-wealthy family and I can tell you that a library card and a mom who let us all buy books from the racks at the grocery store with the little bit of leftover money made a huge difference in who I grew up to be. Owning my very own books, books I could go back to over and over whenever I wanted, was like having a map of how to grow up.

I was given two books on my 9th birthday: A Wrinkle in Time was the very first, but not the last, time in my life that books showed me how a plain girl in glasses has power, and To Dance, To Dream showed me that grace and joy can belong to everyone (and that being a strong woman is really cool). Every child should have the chance to see themselves as heroes in their own lives.

So, here we are, feet firmly planted in the twins' broccoli patch, getting ready to send someone off onto an unending adventure, one that starts with the breathless opening of their very own books.

books, books, boxes of books (long post for a car full of all those words)

Sunrise, 7:08, sunset 5:39.

It's Friday once again and what a great day. For one thing, it's not raining. There is light in the sky and it isn't freezing. The other good thing was getting up and delivering boxes and boxes of books to schools that REALLY need them. I am on the board of the Northwest Literacy Foundation and we have a program called Fill the Shelves. We delivered 20 or so boxes to 6 different schools, schools that have lost all or almost all of their funding for books and their libraries. We choose these schools based on the percentage of children who receive free or reduced lunches.

The look on the faces of the librarians and the kids when we rolled the handtruck into the libary was pretty amazing. Some cried, most laughed, the buzz in the libraries when we walked in was intense. We'd put the boxes on the counters and then let the kids open them up and look at what was inside. By the time the kids get back from their winter break, most of the books should be catalogued and ready to be checked out. The kids who helped with the book opening all got a post-it note and a pen and dibs on the book they most wanted to read first.

One of the classrooms was in the middle of the RIF book distribution, selecting a (free) book and
then putting their names inside. One little boy kept asking, with a very sweet emphasis on the word "book" (booook, pronounced like Luke), I can read this book every day? Every day I can get to read this book? and the librarian, Pat Bliquez of Roxhill Elementary, said, Yes, it's yours forever! You can read it forever! He really got the idea of forever and the joy flowing from his little first grade heart was palpable.

The single middle school we went to, Chinook Middle School in the Highline School District, was in the middle of class change, high movement, lots of noise, and Carolyn Rancour reminded us to stay alert in case we didn't get to the library before getting embroiled in the hallway world of middle school. Her library was filled with computers and books. The computers were lent her from other classrooms so the kids would be able to work together in labs or in groups. She found the space for them by searching through the stacks for old history, science, social studies books, books long out of print, now filled with misinformation. One book she told us about was published in 1962. We hadn't even made it to the moon. John F. Kennedy was still president. The Beatles hadn't yet come to America.

Her new books will be helpful in correcting some of that old information: there is no Soviet Union.

Concord International School in South Park is filled with different languages, many of which I couldn't recognize. The signs are in English, Spanish, Vietnamese...All the kids were in pajamas, obviously it was Pajama Day, the last day in school before Winter break. The first graders in Mindy Terr's library that day got to ride up in the elevator in shifts, each chaperoned by the adults, two of whom were our younger delivery people, Elizabeth and Riley. You forget how exciting riding in an elevator can be for little kids and how very open they are. John Odland and I learned that you should never get in an elevator with anything that could catch on fire because then you could have a fire in the elevator. Someone really learned her lesson about fire safety.

Mindy's students gathered around the books and each one found one they really wanted to read and headed to the little reading area, settling in and reading out loud to each other. I don't think ANY of them were listening to each other, they were just sharing everything, laughing, getting up and showing their friends what they were reading, and then going back to their chairs.

Our first delivery was quiet, school hadn't yet started but this school, Muir, is near Franklin High School, one of the schools that consistently comes in the top places in the Global Reading Challenge. Their librarian, Steve Marsh, is tireless in getting kids who may not speak English at home, literate and at or above grade level before they leave him.

(All the elementary schools are participating in the Global Reading Challenge. Briefly, it is a contest involving books and facts about each one. Each school's 4th and 5th graders will read ten books and then do a Quiz Bowl type trivia test. The school with the most points goes home with the trophy to compete against schools in British Columbia. Northwest Literacy is one of the groups that funds the program.)

Mary Manzin, at Emerson Elementary in Rainier Beach, had only a couple of kids in the room, one in a suit, ready to move on to perform in an assembly but books have an amazing lure for children at this age. Well, for kids of all ages, actually. Mary's assistant was like a bee in a flower bed, touching the boxes, walking around us, getting closer, moving away.

Marcia Kauzlarich at Madrona Elementary in Highline was in the middle of Free Day, the kids had had perfect behavior for 5 weeks (!) and got to choose what they wanted to do. They seriously gave up the games and puzzles they were involved in to be some of the first people in the school to handle books only a few people have touched before. BRAND NEW BOOKS! Again, each of those students immediately found at least one book they "Really have to have it NOW! Can we have this NOW?"

Yeah, I love this. Seeing the progression of literacy, from the tiniest first graders sounding out the words they don't know, the third graders secure enough now in their reading to choose something to read that they haven't had any contact with before, to the great, big middle schoolers who, because they got the right book in their hands, may go onto college or at least have a life filled with beauty and interest.

These librarians, too, are faced with huge obstacles in their schools. There are 80 different languages spoken in the schools in Rainier Beach. There are more than 240 dialects spoken in the Highline School District. They are poorer schools, mostly filled with kids from poorer families. They don't own many books, so the books they can borrow from the library not only change their lives, they change the whole family as they come home for a week or two. Kids read the books to their parents who may not speak any English, thus passing what they learn on to others.

And you know the librarians at EVERY school, not just these few, are dedicated to the kids in their schools and to their lives of literacy, all the forms of literacy. They work long hours, they know every child, every need, make decorations and run math labs. The excitement in each of these libraries was amazing. Every single one of these librarians seemed to be vibrating, their minds ahead of their bodies, they were answering questions and handing out pens, solving problems, catching someone's eyes, and still paying attention to the 4 people who came and interrupted the day.



Look at these classrooms, they are vibrant, bright, connected, filled with laughter and words. What wonderful places to be.

If you are ever looking to donate some money to a good group, think of The Northwest Literacy Foundation. 21 years in existence, it has given thousands and thousands of dollars worth of books to schools in need. It is completely run by volunteers, has no office space, every penny goes to buying books for schools, using a locally owned, independent bookstore for the sales. It is a truly worthy place to give money.

Gary Schmidt and Best Books Ever

Sunrise was at 7:32, sunset will be at 5:15 but on days like this, it just stays dark and gets darker until it's night. It's cold, wet, windy; gray, sage and brown. I know there are bright spots out there somewhere but it's too uncomfortable outside to go look. I just heard that it's 50 degrees and my feet are freezing.

It's noon, I've been up for an hour, too many late nights reading, have drunk half a pot of coffee, and am boiling up some beans for chili. I can't seem to focus on any one thing: it took me 20 minutes to empty the dishwasher and I still haven't put the pans away. Looked at facebook, then got distracted by a pile of books, then jumped back and forth between the blogger dashboard and email. I finally turned the heat up and the heat has risen to my shoulders and now I'm too warm (and my feet are still cold).

Since it's Friday and my day off, anything for an excuse, I am going to make ramen for lunch! YAY! My favorite comfort food. And, yes, the small, square, packages that are 10 for a dollar, are my ramen of choice. Lots of celery, snow peas, and some cheese all melted through. Mmmmm. I used to make this for my high school boyfriend; in college I had a friend over for dinner and this is what I made (he said, "Maybe you can't cook, but you can sure stir!"). I love this stuff. I know it's not the best possible food on earth, and I always end up napping after, but it makes me HAPPY!

I received the boxes of books (and, yes, I said BOXES) from the Winter Institute shipping room and I left them unopened for a couple of days, sitting on the floor in the dining room. I put off opening them because it was such a treat knowing what was inside, knowing how great it was going to be to get inside and pull them out, one book at a time, ruffling the pages, looking at the back covers, putting this one in the immediate pile, this one in the next pile, this one on the table so I could read it NOW.

I pulled Divergent out first and read that one in one long pull, then I searched for Okay for Now, written by Gary D. Schmidt, because I really wanted to read that one first.

Okay for Now is Mr. Schmidt's companion to The Wednesday Wars, one of the best books ever. And now I can add Okay for Now to my list of One of the Best Books Ever.

Doug Swieteck is an 8th grader. His dad is a slob and an alcoholic, a mean man. His mom is amazing, his brother is beginning to take after his dad, and his other brother is in Viet Nam. When the book begins, they have to move away from the world they know to "Stupid Marysville", a town with a stupid library, a stupid store, and a stupid school, because his dad got himself fired from his stupid job.

I don't want to tell you too much about the book because it is such a joy to read. I told D. how much I liked this book and a little bit about it and he said something along the lines of "sounds really uplifting". Well, it is. Doug is a great character and so realistic. He's confused, unhappy, worried, angry but so wants to do well and be a good friend. Will he ever get his chance? Will his hoodlum brother's reputation always get in Doug's way? Will his dad's friend, Ernie, get him fired again? What will happen when/if his oldest brother comes home from the war? How is he going to deal with school when his disabilities are discovered?

Thank whatever's out there for libraries, librarians, and friends who see something good in you. When Doug finally gets himself admitted to the library and makes his way to an echoey room with a glass box in the center, he finds something that gives his life focus and reason. That enclosed book and its paintings of birds give him something beautiful and all his own to hold close to his chest. Something his father can't take, that he can share in little ways with others, and something outside himself that he feels he can make the world a better place.

I LOVED this book. Now I want to reread Wednesday Wars and then this one, again.

Gary D. Schmidt will be coming to Third Place Books in May. Read one of his books and then come meet him. The photo at the top of the page is of Gary signing my copy of Okay for Now at Winter Institute. Isn't that COOL!

(And the ramen? it was good and I started Bumped, by Megan McCafferty, while I ate and scraped up every bit of stringy cheddar and snapped into those bright green veggies.)

Alice Hoffman is Coming!

Sunrise was at 7:36, sunset will be at 5:10. At 7 am the sky is a pure indigo blue, just beginning to announce the day. It is the same color at 6 pm. There is just a clear deep blue, like light coming through stained glass, bookending our days. There are a few extra minutes of light per day and it is finally noticeable. When 4:30 pm comes and goes and it is still daylight, you know it's coming up spring.

Like many people who read a lot, there isn't a lot of time between one book and the next. I finished reading Red Garden, Alice Hoffman's newest (published) book and received her VERY NEXT book in the mail, The Dovekeepers, the same day. That's a good thing because she's coming to the store on FRIDAY! I can't wait! I hope she'll sign all my books-I've been reading her for decades and have been hoarding everything just in case I ever got to meet her! Favorite AH books? White Horses (this was my introduction to AH and is still my all-time favorite book by her) Illumination Night, Practical Magic, Red Garden, and, even though I'm not finished with it, Dovekeepers.

I found myself wandering all over the house reading Red Garden. I read it while on the bike in the living room, and then carried it everywhere, reading over the counter stirring breakfast, draped over the bannister upstairs, putting my pants on, holding the pages down with the blankets putting on my socks. Finished it eating breakfast. Very satisfying, very Alice Hoffman-ish. Very much a loud whisper of a book; I lean in to hear more. I find her books to be powerful in their quietude.

Red Garden is the story of a place and, within that story, the stories of the women of that place. Three hundred years of the history and the making of a small town through the memories and passions of the women who lived there. At the center of the town, and at the center of the book, is a garden where only red plants grow, where even transplanted plants turn red. And at the center of the garden is a secret.

I love her books because of the secrets that the people in her books hold close. They are secrets that change the lives of those who hold them and they can be as simple as a crush or as complex as murder - and I have found a relationship with her characters because I can see their secrets reflected in my own. Her characters are fictional but the actions they take and the passions they feel are very much ours.

I can't wait to get back to Dovekeepers (must read book called Getting Things Done first for a staff book group), a story that takes place in 70 c.e. about a girl whose mother dies while she is being born and so she is ostracized within her family; her father thinks she is cursed. As the Romans destroy Jerusalem, she and her father escape into the desert and she falls in love with a man whose family is traveling with them. It's really good. The language, history and rites of the times are fascinating, and I am anxiously awaiting my return to it. (Dovekeepers will be available in October, '11.)

Firsts: The Monkees and The Emerald Atlas

Sunrise today was at 7:44, sunset will be at 4:59. There's still light in the sky at 5:30 pm!

KUOW's Steve Sher is doing a story about the first record album bought with your own money. Many memories popped into my head about my first record: The Monkees were the first band I fell in love with, as well as the first album bought for me (we had little spending money so Mom included our music in her selections-thank you, Mom).

To this day I recognize the opening notes of every song on this record. I took it with me from Eugene to Eureka the summer it came out, afraid that the t.v. show wouldn't be on and I'd need the relief of Davy's face on the record cover while I waited to go back home to a television where The Monkees were always on at a specifically designated time and day. Never mind that Grandma and Grandpa didn't have a record player.

I'd lie in the attic bed, dreaming that, because we were, after all, in California, we'd just happen across Davy Jones and he'd drop that blond bikini-ed bimbo hovering over him on the back of the record, opting instead for a girl of 10 with long straight brown hair and glasses, seeing something in me he would wait for. Maybe I'd eventually fill a bikini and walk on the sand with him, holding hands in the sunset. Oh, my god, the yearning in my soul for him, his starry eyes and his accent.

I am back from Washington, DC, Arlington, actually, where we spent a few extremely cold days and nights at The Winter Institute, an educational and fun event all about books, bookselling, business, and friends. We (Robert Sindelar, Michael Coy, and I) learned a lot and ate a lot, met many new people and reconnected with old friends and collected lots of new books. I pretty much concentrated on the children's book side of things, can't help it, I like kids' books, and have sent boxes of new authors' books home to review and then to share with customers and you, dear reader.

One of the best parts of the Institute is the Speed Dating part: Many publishers present as many books as they can in 15 minutes, moving on and presenting again. It gives booksellers a broad swathe of genres and favorites to investigate afterward. The next best part is meeting those books' authors at the receptions that separate the educational parts of the day and the following dinners with other booksellers and authors. Wine, books, dessert, mmmmm... nothing better.

One of the authors I was really excited to meet was John Stephens. He was a writer for The Gilmore Girls, produced Gossip Girls, but has written his first kids' book called The Emerald Atlas. I was in the middle of this book when I left for DC and then finished it last night.

This is going to be huge, kids! Put it on your list of books to buy, get a first edition, as soon as you can. It is the story of three children, they might be orphans, who are sure their parents will be back for them. In the final orphanage, the last and worst orphanage that will take them, they embark on a journey and quest that will take them back and forth in time, in and out of people's lives, searching always for home and family. It is a great story, filled with adventure and danger, a good deal of humor, smart and brave children, horrible, evil adults, and magic, magic everywhere. It feels a little like Narnia, has good language and pacing, great story for both genders...I LOVED it! I can't wait for the next one!

Age 9 and up. The Emerald Atlas will be available April 5, 2011, published by Knopf. $17.99.

umbrellas and books

Sunrise is at 7:57 today and sunset will be at 4:25.

Gray, not raining. Yet. Debris, open bins, buckets are strewn all over the yard. Must have been quite a wind at some point. There is a chance we may have some snow tonight, half an inch at most, they say. I say, "Bring it on." I have my new boots, I have warm clothes, I have already broken bones that will be stronger for having gone through the last snow. I will take the bus (whenever it comes) and I will pack my bag with water, snacks, and a few good books. Oh, and the new umbrella my niece and nephew gave me because they wanted me visible while I walk.

I am tempted to figure out how to rig little Christmas lights in it so I can read in the dark in the rain and the teensy bit of snow we may still get. They will have to be the kind of lights that we put outdoors, huh? Can't you see it now? The myth and legend that will rise up out of this pale, glowing, happy, polka-dotted woman-height circle floating through the town, like a baby UFO trying to get off the ground. I could put tinsel on the ribs and it would look like a jellyfish! Pretty.

I am looking forward to getting the brace off my right arm (I broke two small bones in my wrist, one under the thumb -cracked it-and one just over the pointy wrist bone -chipped it). It isn't so much that it's a hindrance -it is- but that I have so much I want to do! I want to weed the pathways, I really want to clean the windows in here, I want to use both hands to hold a book (carpal tunnel problems in my left hand have accelerated greatly), I want to finish the quilt I was in the middle of when I got sick but before I fell in the snow. I want to get back to body equality: my left side is killing me! I have to use that side for everything and it hurts! It feels like the nerves are all exposed and being dragged along sharp bones. January 11! More X-rays and FREEDOM! I am actually looking forward to having a hot flash just to cool that arm off! Finally!

I am in the middle of Drinking: A Love Story, by Caroline Knapp. It is a beautifully written book about a woman and her lifelong affair with alcohol. It's hard to read all at once so I come to it a chapter at a time. I was introduced to this book when I read Let's Take the Long Way Home, by Gail Caldwell.

Started Corvus: A Life with Birds, by Esther Woolfson, and I just so enjoy it. It is the true story of a woman and her crow. Very nice and makes my blood pressure lower just by picking it up. Thanks to Constance P for lending it to me.

Just loved this new book called A Tale Dark and Grimm, a retelling of the Grimm's fairy tales where Hansel and Gretel are the main characters. Very clever, funny, bloody, and could be a really good re-introduction to the original tales most moms are afraid to share with their kids. In this particular retelling, Hansel and Gretel are the children of a king and an queen who are the victims of a dark fate. When they do a horrible thing to the kids to right a wrong, the twins run away from home and into the woods and adventures filled with the Devil, witches, the fates disguised as crows, and quests destined to lead them home again. It is a good addition to the other Grimm tales out there now, like Cornelia Funke's Reckless, Polly Shulman's Grimm Legacy, The Sisters Grimm, by Michael Buckley, and Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce. Tale Dark and Grimm is good for ages 10 and up, available now.

Ahh, Sarah Dessen. Don't you just love her books? I will put everything else down to read her books next. They are such fabulous stories about people, mostly girls, who are in the middle of becoming young adults. They are simple life stories wrapped around girls who are very likable, very much like the rest of us: confused, changeable, sometimes unhappy, just trying to figure out how to grow up. She adds music to the mix and I love that a lot of her characters need or want jobs and that those jobs often take place in restaurants or around food.

Her newest book, What Happened to Goodbye, is about a girl with divorced parents. She lives with her dad, following him from town to town as he works to save failing restaurants, and assumes a new identity in each one. The current town is filled with likable people and a quirky boy next door, and, for the first time in years, she uses her real name. Ooh, it is so good! Unfortunately, you will have to wait until May to buy it (you can order it from Third Place Books, now, if you call us!). Thank you, Colleen, for sharing the ARC and thanks to Rene H for then sharing it with me. Age 12 and up. (Penguin, due May, 2011.)

Hmm. Half the books I've read or been in the middle of reading are grown-up books! Huzzah!

Sunrise was at 6:40, Sunset will be at 7:32.

It's my 100th blog entry! Huzzah! Lots of books read, few written about. I wish I were better about keeping a list of what I've read. I have three stacks of books next to my desk, books I've read but maybe I'm not ready to review or they were okay and I have to remember what they were...most of them are fantasy and I don't want to admit to how much fantasy I really read....some just won't be out until much later...mostly I read faster than I write so they just mount up. The cat's not happy about it since I am using her scratching post as the annex.

Just got back from a long walk in the neighborhood, up Jackson past the Red Apple grocery, along the ridge over the lake (I love watching the traffic over the bridge), winding home back and forth through Bradner Gardens, around the pea patches, over the I-90 lid.

Had to stop and watch the dogs and their parents from a viewpoint above Blue Dog Park, the local leash-free park. What a hoot! All the dogs, no matter whose dog they were, surrounded the mom or dad holding the ball or stick over their head, scattering like pinballs before the item even left the hand. Such joy in their movement; dogs leaping over each other and rolling for yards when they get tangled up; barking and barking and barking; intense gazes at the humans while patiently waiting for the throw.

There's something about Suzanne Selfors and my walks around the neighborhood. When I read Coffeehouse Angel, I was walking around Seward Park. Walking around Jackson and Massachusetts, Bradner Gardens and Blue Dog Park, I was reading Mad Love, her new book about a 16 year-old girl, the daughter of The Queen of Romance.

Alice's mom has been hospitalized with a mental illness, leaving Alice alone at home, hiding the fact that Mom can't sign her own books or finish the book she got a $100,000 advance for. That means that someone is going to have to pay back the advance, or it will come out of the royalties they have been living on.

That's where I left off when I turned back into my driveway. In this book there's a mysterious man with a manuscript that smells like clam juice, a really cute boy with a skate board and a regular route past her house, an unstable home life, and the back of the book says there's also Errol, a boy who claims to be Cupid. I'm taking the book with me when I go out later for pizza at Flying Squirrel, just in case I'm first to arrive and have a few minutes to read, or if I get caught at a light or a traffic jam. It's pretty good so far! (There is no jacket art available, yet, that is a photo of Suzanne.) (Wow! Mad Love won't be available until January, 2011. Published by Walker Books, ages 12 and up.)

The BookNotes for March 17, 2010

BookNotes is a newsletter about books and book events. It began at All for Kids Books and Music years ago and when AFK closed I continued it for those who wanted to know what I was reading, what was new in the children’s book world, or which children’s book authors were visiting.
I now work at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park and still write this newsletter. I upload the BookNotes newsletter to this blog after I send it. I try to send the newsletter out every few weeks; I update my blog whenever I have time to write during the week.

Welcome!

It’s almost spring and the time change just happened. Next week is the equinox and we will have even more daylight to read by. Reading outside is such a joy, hearing the sounds of the day, feeling the weather, the experience becomes so much more than words on a page. Try it soon, maybe with one of the following selections!

BookNotes:

It wouldn’t be spring without a book or two about rabbits and one of the best is Jan Brett’s new book called The Easter Egg. As with most of Ms. Brett’s books, there is more than one story contained within the boards of the book.

It’s time for the rabbits to make the eggs for the Easter Bunny and Hoppi is now old enough to decorate his very own. On his tour of the other rabbits’ art works he discovers a fallen robin’s egg and keeps it safe and warm until it hatches. Unfortunately, his good work means he doesn’t have an egg to give the Easter Bunny. Or does he?

The Easter Egg is beautifully illustrated and each spread shows the advancing of the season. Ms. Brett has designed elaborately illustrated borders which include willow branches, ferns, and other foliage one would find in a wood in bloom, and a secondary story that children will find and follow. All the rabbits in the book are real ones and I can see parents using the book well into county fair time, going to the rabbit pens to see some of the breeds illustrated here.

The Easter Egg is beautiful and has a sweet story. I think this is one of Jan Brett’s best books in years, right up there with Annie and the Wild Animals.

(The Easter Egg is published by Putnam, and it is available now for $17.99. Great for ages 3 and older.)

Another rabbit book for a slightly older crowd is called Bunny Days, written by Tao Nyeu. Sweetly illustrated in pastels and strong black lines, Bunny Days is three little stories about a group of bunnies who are often in trouble of one kind or another and need their neighbor, a crafty bear, to help them out.

The stories in this book are a little different, a little odd in a gentle kind of way: Mr. Goat gets the bunnies muddy and Bear washes them in a machine on the gentle cycle and then hangs them up to line dry; Mrs. Goat sucks them right out of their burrows while she is vacuuming and now they are dusty and Bear helps them get cleaned up; Mr. Goat accidentally cuts their little tails off while they are playing hide and seek in the bushes and Bear very carefully sews their tails back on. All ends well with a little bed rest, a little cake and a little tea.

I love the illustrations in this book. They are simple with lots of detail for little eyes to look for. There is a butterfly and a frog which appear almost on every page (or maybe I just haven’t been able to find them all) and the final spread has the entire storyline for a quick recap. I found myself reading this out loud in a quiet voice, it reads like a bedtime story, regardless of its subject’s mishaps.

(Bunny Days, by Tao Nyeu, is published by Dial and is available now for $16.99. Fine for ages 4 and older.)

And for the younger readers in the crew, we have Lisa McCue’s Fuzzytails which is a touch-and-feel counting book. Lisa McCue is well-known for her exceedingly cute (without being gaggingly sweet) animals and I think this little book is a good addition to all those other board books in the world. It is a simple rhyme which involves animals, numbers, and all kinds of things to touch and to feel. Brightly colored, it is filled with lots of pictures showing different animals in their various habitats. It’s really cute, and number six? More bunnies!

(Lisa McCue’s Fuzzytails is published by Random House, and is perfect for ages 2 and older. $8.99.)

A Nest for Celeste, by Henry Cole, is a great story about a little mouse named Celeste, and the friend she makes when John Audubon comes to paint birds. Filled with great adventure and friendship, A Nest for Celeste is all about finding a place to call home.

The book is filled with drawings of Celeste, her world, and her adventures, which mean that it will be a great read aloud for the younger reader, especially if you are reading to that child on your lap. There will be lots to look at while you read and the pictures add so much to the experience. The story itself is a little more mature so will appeal to an older child as well, not to mention the adult who will learn how John Audubon actually painted and chronicled the bird population of the United States. Fascinating!

(A Nest for Celeste is published by HarperCollins for $16.99 and is a great read-aloud for 5 and up, but is also a good read alone for 8 and up. The book is a good hefty one and it is square and feels good in your hands.)

Night Fairy is written by Newbery-winning author Laura Amy Schlitz, and is illustrated by Angela Barrett. This is a small little book about a fairy born close to midnight, a Night Fairy, who, just after she learns to fly, loses her luna moth-like wings to a bat. Unable to fly, she must make her way in a world that is way too big to navigate all on her own. She makes friends with a squirrel (and the illustrations of this huge squirrel and the teensy little fairy really let you experience how scary her world is) and finds a nice house that a giantess has hung off a branch of a tree. The story is filled with adventures with spiders and hummingbirds and Angela Barrett’s illustrations are perfect for this book. She uses a twilight palette filled with indigo and shadow, punctuated with moonlight, and a palette of willow-colored greens and the palest of cherry tree pink, to illustrate pictures that will hold your eye to the page. This is not a sweet fairy book for the fan of pink and candy floss. Flory is fierce and willing to do what she needs to do to survive.

(Night Fairy is published by Candlewick, $16.99, and is a perfect book for 8 and up.)

One of my favorite new books for ages 9 and up is Cosmic, by Frank Cottrell Boyce. What if you were 12 years old but you looked like you were 30? Liam has this problem. Sometimes it can be fun, like when the principal mistakes him as the teacher, and sometimes it’s terrifying, like when he is encouraged to take a car out for a test spin but he doesn’t know how to drive.

When he wins a contest to fly on one of the first ever civilian ships to go into space, he is immediately disqualified when no one believes he is a child. Desperate to fulfill his dream of going to the stars, he competes with the other adults for the single chaperone’s position and wins. On his way to the moon, a slight miscalculation sends the ship far, far off course.

Funny, poignant, Cosmic is a great read. Kids are smart, adults’ lives aren’t as fascinating as they might seem, and sometimes you really, really need your dad.

(Published by HarperCollins for $16.99, Cosmic is a great book for readers 9 and up.)


Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can’t Have, by Allen Zadoff, is a book about a fat boy who wishes he was thin and popular. Andrew’s parents are divorced, his mom is a caterer, he is seriously smart, and he has to deal with bullies at school on a daily basis.

One morning, after the day's first locker shove and heckle, he is rescued by the quarterback. Taken aside, Andrew is recruited to join the football team. Completely unexpected, especially since the football players are the bane of his daily existence, he is transformed from fat boy taking up more than his share of space to linebacker blocking the open space in front of the quarterback. And a cheerleader girlfriend comes with the job. Good thing she knows a thing or two about the game since Andrew hasn’t exactly been studying up.

Things are looking up, he has new friends, no time for his old ones, though, a girlfriend, and a winning team…or does he? There are whispers and rumors that he was chosen for this role because of his size, not because he has any skill or because anyone really wants him on the team.

Funny and smart , Andrew is a good guy whose life takes an odd turn. Who would say no to living the dream, at least for a while? Food, Girls and Other Things I Can’t Have is a great story about figuring out who you are and how to respect what you find out.

(Published by Egmont, $16.99. It is good for ages 12 and older.)

BookStuff:
There are big happenings at Third Place Books in the children’s book world. We have a children’s book oriented newsletter (sign up here: ), a newsletter aimed at teachers in particular (you can sign up at the same place for that one). To find out more about the authors and events scheduled in the near future, check the website. A few of the fine folks coming to visit are Henry Winkler, George Shannon, Ridley Pearson, and Andrew Clements.

A number of authors who come to the area are looking for school events as well as store events and the only way to find out who and where is to contact Cheryl McKeon, our children’s book event co-ordinator. Her email address is cmckeon@thirdplacebooks.com.
We also feature many great events for adults and you can find information at the store's website.

Okay, that’s enough for now. I hope you are all well. If you take a liking to any of the titles in this newsletter, please go to or call one of your locally owned, independent bookshops. As much as I would like to see you all up at the north end of the lake at Third Place Books, I know it can be a long trip. Don’t forget that most indie bookshops can ship and mail books and you can get them pretty quickly! We will even wrap for you!

See you!

Rene’ Kirkpatrick, bookseller.