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REVIEWS
t h e nat i o n ’s p r e m i e r b o o k r e v i e w j o u r na l f o r mo r e t h a n 7 5 y e a rs ★ The Kirkus Top 10 iPad storybook apps, in addition to coverage of 50 interactive e-books in both the children’s and adult categories p. 233 ★ Discoveries offers the best of recent submissions, talks to e-book visionary Mark Coker, rounds up online writing groups and asks librarians how they judge the value of independently published titles p. 341
Special issue 9
w h at ’s h a p p e n i n g
right now in books
★ Tools of Change’s Tim O’Reilly talks about the future of publishing in both the print and digital worlds p. 236
★ A wish-list for the future of interactive e-books, straight from the mouths of today’s cutting-edge developers p. 246 ★ Self-publishing phenom J.A. Konrath looks at his biggest month selling e-books, and provides tips for other enterprising authors p. 253 ★ Smart Bitches, Trashy Books’ Sarah Wendell examines the good, the bad, and the ugly in e-reading experiences p. 254
in this issue: evaluations of the top tablets for e -reading
Kirkus Special Issue: What’s Happening RIGHT NOW in books, in affiliation with the 2011 O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference; Kirkus is now the only professional curator of iPad storybook apps and interactive e-books across all platforms. v i s i t k i rku sre vi e ws. com f or f ull versions of f eatures, q & as and thou sa n ds of archived reviews
interactive e-books p. 233
fiction p. 257
children & teens p. 299
nonfiction p. 279
f r om
t h e
p u b l i s h e r
Dear Reader – Everyone’s talking about digital publishing—no surprise given that 25 million iPads are expected to ship in 2011 and $2.7 billion in e-book sales are projected by 2013. The sheer volume of information, commentary and hype that surrounds this new medium can be overwhelming. How does one take a satisfying drink from the proverbial fire hose of substance and opinion? First and foremost, you find a good source. Here at Kirkus, these changes aren’t just on our radar, they’re in our scope. Over the last few months, we’ve focused our efforts on building a solid framework designed to help you hone in on what matters to you. And these efforts will be ongoing. In late 2010, it became apparent that children’s book apps for tablets & smartphones had become a new and distinct category. The Kirkus team of editors and reviewers worked through the growing base of apps, to determine which are compelling from a storytelling and visual sense. The response to these reviews has been quite strong, so much so that we are expanding to provide a more robust iPad app discovery solution, which will be optimized for easy navigation on an iPad. A first in digital reviewing for Kirkus Reviews, we are announcing Kirkus Top 10 Storybook apps. See the list to the right and at kirkusreviews.com. On February 16th, I’ll be participating in a panel with Bethanne Patrick, Ron Charles and Michael Schaub at the O’Reilly: Tools of Change conference, where we’ll be examining “Literary Reviewing in the Digital Age.” I’ll be discussing the opportunities and challenges of reviewing all type of books in this rapidly emerging digital publishing space. That same week, we’ll be giving away 75 children’s book apps and an Apple iPad—for more info check out our website: kirkusreviews.com/blog/contest. These are exciting times. As everyone adapts to this literary revolution, Kirkus is simultaneously devoted to maintaining our high standard of excellence and developing a new framework that best serves you, our readers. We’re looking forward to unveiling it in the coming months. —Bob Carlton
discoveries p. 341
kirkus top 10 storybook apps: 1. POPOUT! THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT Potter, Beatrix; Illustrator: Potter, Beatrix Developer: Loud Crow Interactive 2. TEDDY’S DAY Hächler, Bruno; Illustrator: Müller, Birte Developer: Auryn Inc.
Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Vice President & Publisher B O B C A R LT O N bcarlton@kirkusreviews.com Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkusreviews.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkusreviews.com Features Editor M O L LY B RO W N molly.brown@kirkusreviews.com Children’s & YA Books VICKY SMITH vicky.smith@kirkusreviews.com Discoveries Editor P E R RY C RO W E perry.crowe@kirkusreviews.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Editorial Coordinator REBECCA CRAMER rebecca.cramer@kirkusreviews.com Contributing Editor G REG ORY Mc NAME E #
3. ALICE FOR THE iPAD Carroll, Lewis; Illustrator: Tenniel, John Developer: Atomic Antelope
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4. COZMO’S DAY OFF Developer: Ayars Animation
Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/ book-reviews/print-indexes
5. THE THREE LITTLE PIGS AND THE SECRETS OF A POPUP BOOK Illustrator: Brooke, L. Leslie Developer: Game Collage LLC 6. THE LITTLE MERMAID AND OTHER STORIES BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN Andersen, Hans Christian; Developer: Game Collage LLC 7. BARTLEBY’S BOOK OF BUTTONS Van Ryzin, Henrik & Denise; Illustrator: Van Ryzin, Henrik & Denise Developer: Monster Costume 8. THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED 3D Keller, Wallace E.; Illustrator: Keller, Wallace E. Developer: See Here Studios 9. GREEN EGGS & HAM Dr. Seuss; Illustrator: Dr. Seuss Developer: Oceanhouse Media 10. JACK AND THE BEANSTALK CHILDREN’S INTERACTIVE STORYBOOK Developer: Ayars Animation
Kirkus Reviews Online www.kirkusreviews.com
Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ advertising-opportunities Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ submission-guidlines Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription/newsletter/add This Issue’s Contributors Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Gerald Bartell • Amy Boaz • Lori Calabria • Dave DeChristopher • Gregory F. DeLaurier • David Delman • Kathleen Devereaux • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Sean Gibson • Christine Goodman • Michael Griffith • BJ Hollars • Judy Jackson • Robert M. Knight • Paul Lamey • Rebecca Schumejda • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Angela LerouxLindsey • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Elise V. MacArthur • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Chris Messick • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Chris Morris • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • Christofer D. Pierson • William E. Pike • Gary Presley • John T. Rather • Cedric Rose • Lloyd Sachs • Arthur Smith • Kester Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg • Carol White
interactive e-books won over. The very best apps have risen to the challenge of the medium, providing technological enhancements while still being mindful of storytelling. Some take classic, familiar tales and expand them through the unique capabilities of the iPad, and others tell new stories. At their best, they provide what parents and kids have always gone to books for—a great story experience. That this story experience is on-screen instead of paper will probably be immaterial to children, even if adults notice the difference. And aren’t children the whole point? They are hungry for stories and words, and the iPad—not to mention future gadgets— can join books to provide them. We have worked to evaluate many of the apps available, both for storytelling and usability, and we present many of them here. Make sure to look at our Top 10 list on our website at kirkusreviews.com/childrens-book-apps, and keep coming back.
If you have a child of the right age, I’m guessing that one of the most sacred moments of your day is snuggling with him or her or them and a book. There is real magic at work as a parent reads to a child, turning the pages to see what’s in store, pointing out what’s going on, asking questions and making predictions. Chances are also good that you or someone you know has a brand-new iPad, and, kids being kids, they will want to play with it. The app store is overflowing with storybook apps that seek to provide as dynamic a reading experience digitally as we have enjoyed for generations with paper and print. Can you add an iPad to the child-parentbook mix and achieve the same magic? In the last month, our reviewer, Omar Gallaga (with some help from his daughter), and I have explored this digital-book world to help you find the best ones. I confess, as a book lover I was skeptical. But under Omar’s guidance, I swiped, tapped, tipped and listened—and was |
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“... stands on its own with the sheer number of things it does right…. It’s a beautiful little virtual book collection.”
from the little mermaid and other stories by hans christian andersen
ANA LOMBA’S SPANISH FOR KIDS: CINDERELLA / CENICIENTA
with the sheer number of things it does right, even in comparison to Alice. It’s a beautiful little virtual book collection. (iPad storybook app. 4-12)
Developer: Ana Lomba Early Languages LLC | $3.99
AESOP’S WHEEL OF FABLES Developer: AppyZoo | $4.99
More textbook than storybook, this modern take on “Cinderella” is part of a series of language-study apps from educator Ana Lomba. The story of the neglected stepsister-turned-princess is presented as a set of 10 scenes to be listened to in one language, repeated in a second language (here it’s English and Spanish) and acted out by the reader as a form of immersion learning. Some of the original tale’s timeless magic is lost in translating; Cinderella doesn’t just do laundry; she does it at 9:00 with modern washer and dryer. She buys groceries for her keepers, specifically $34.17 worth of potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes. The vocabulary-building list-taking isn’t great for the story’s narrative, but it’s a novel approach to educational storytelling. Less innovative is the app’s cluttered, busy design, which puts too many distracting buttons above and below the text. At 51 pages, however, the app doesn’t skimp on content. Its narration is well-acted, including distinct tone changes for character dialogue in both English and Spanish. The amusing present-day touches (the stepsisters do Pilates; Cinderella arrives at the ball in an orange Maserati) don’t hurt, either. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)
The unlikely offspring of Wheel of Fortune and ancient Greece, this app collects 20 of Aesop’s fables as wedges on a large spinner. The app instructs readers to “Spin Your Fables,” and when readers align a story with a pointer, a two- to four-page story with illustrations opens, complete with such morals as, “Expect no reward for serving the wicked” (“Wolf and the Crane”), and, “The race is not always to the swift” (“The Hare and the Tortoise”). The wheel is meant to be the app’s killer feature, but it often works choppily, making one wish for a simple index instead. The stories themselves are elegantly illustrated with the appropriate level of seriousness for the weighty tales; wolves look menacing and sinister, while the shelled racer in “The Hare and the Tortoise” appears determined and ancient. English narration is offered (Chinese, Japanese and German are also available), as is the option to record your own reading. As a bonus, the more stories that are read, the more “Spot the Difference” puzzles are unlocked. The fables, timeless as they may be, don’t skimp on animal violence (“The Goose and the Golden Egg”) or carnal romance (“The Rose and the Butterfly”) to make their point. Definitely unusual, but not as revolutionary as it appears. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
THE LITTLE MERMAID AND OTHER STORIES BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK CHILDREN’S INTERACTIVE STORYBOOK
Andersen, Hans Christian Developer: Game Collage LLC | $8.99 Similar in style to the groundbreaking Alice for iPad, this collection of three stories (“The Little Mermaid,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The Happy Family”) retains the original (translated) texts and illustrations and adds a generous portion of gorgeous, well-integrated animations and eye-catching effects. Helpfully, the list of stories tells readers what to expect in terms of length (“Mermaid” is long, “Clothes” is medium-length and “Family” is short). The stories share similar typography (ornate drop caps and page-turn icons), but each one has its own set of appropriate interactive pages. In “Mermaid,” fish can be prodded along with taps while flora can be made to sway realistically in the virtual ocean water. Shooting stars and fireworks light up the night sky above. The fabric in “Clothes” can be pulled from a spool on one page; on another, needle and thread can be manipulated. But the kissing snails, falling raindrops and realistic scurrying ants in “Happy Family” may be the most effective. The stories lack voiced narration but are rich with sound effects. There’s no crime in being inspired by one of the best iPad storybook apps; this collection stands on its own 234
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Developer: Ayars Animation | $3.99
Taking a page out of the Disney playbook (give or take 30 pages), this version of the Jack-versus-Giant tale doesn’t offer sparkling prose. But in every other area—from its lush, hand-drawn-meetsdigital-effects artwork to its treasure trove of hidden games, effective voice work and lengthy list of ways to customize the experience—it reaches great heights. While some of the app’s interactive surprises seem more obligatory than revelatory (when Jack buys the magic beans, a hidden-bean–matching memory game can be accessed), others are more inspired. On every page a hidden golden egg can be found; it hatches to reveal a fuzzy yellow chick dancing to a short burst of accordion music. On one page, tapping Jack coaxes him into belting out a song in the style of a Disney animation show tune. And in addition to the standard poking and page turning used by other iPad story apps, some pages also react to tilting the device or |
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shaking it. The characterizations, especially of the Giant, his wife and Jack’s barnyard animals, are lively. Production values are high, and the app’s length and bundle of features are wellpaced, never overstaying their welcome. Truly an app that grows beyond expectations. (iPad storybook app. 3-10)
seem strikingly classic to some readers and hopelessly quaint and old-fashioned to others. The narration, told in first-person by Peter Pan, seems similarly beamed in from a bygone era. The too-wholesome cadences could be considered refreshing in this era of smart-aleck, irony-prone cartoon characters. This is nicely punctured by Tinker Bell’s apparently filthy mouth; Peter is constantly asking her to watch her language, though all readers hear and see is “Ting-a-ling.” But the text is sometimes missing a punctuation mark or two and stumbles in transition, confusingly alternating between Peter’s first-person and thirdperson interjections to introduce dialogue. It also lacks the wit (and occasional ickiness) of Barrie’s original play-turned-novel. Interactive features are minimal: page swipes, the option to turn off the narration and the ability to pause the story or start from the beginning while the adventure is unfolding. It’s likely that a slew of cheaply reanimated books from the distant past will flood digital shelves, but for now, this version of Peter Pan is unique in its mood and presentation. (iPad storybook app. 2-7)
COZMO’S DAY OFF
Developer: Ayars Animation | $3.99 Clearly produced and filled with Hollywood-quality animation, voice talent and multimedia features, this retro-futurist app is out of this world in many ways. Like Jack and the Beanstalk, another winner from Ayars Animation, the story of little green space creature Cozmo’s trip to his office is packed with fun. While it doesn’t have a rich traditional story to lean on, as Jack did, this app goes wild with such inventions as an adorable robot chef (who doubles as a popcorn machine), zooming personal spaceships and bulbous cityscapes. The art style is reminiscent of 1950s imaginings of the space-bound future; metal antennae and gas pumps exist alongside space travelers and aliens. The story, told in (pedestrian) rhyme, is narrated by an ecstaticsounding announcer. In an inspired bit of programming, that narration, or reader narration recorded by the app, can be pitch-adjusted with a simple slider. It’s an unnecessary but very fun feature older parents who may once have played their LPs at 45 RPM will appreciate. As hard as the text tries (“Now Cozmo hopped in his swift little ship / ‘Buckle your seatbelt,’ the rocket would quip’ “), it can’t compare to the lush visuals or the plethora of elements on screen that fly, explode or, in one memorable instance, fill the screen with fire-extinguisher foam. The app’s comprehensive list of options may be daunting, but the developer has thought of everything: It includes a help document for parents that reveals every hidden nugget in the app’s 10 pages. It turns out there are more than 100. Few story apps are as ambitious, as eye-catching or as playful as Cozmo’s. (iPad storybook app. 4-12)
RED RIDING HOOD
Enhanced Edition Blakley-Cartwright, Sarah and David Leslie Johnson Poppy/Little, Brown (352 pp.) $11.99 | January 25, 2011 Werewolves are both danger and dark romantic element in this teen retelling of the traditional tale, soon to be in a theater near you. Seventeenyear-old Valerie is beautiful, fearless and different from others in the medieval village of Daggorhorn, which has been living under a curse requiring them to offer an animal sacrifice to the Wolf every full moon. Suddenly a blood moon appears, and people start dying. Father Solomon heightens the fear, insisting the Wolf is living among them, not in the woods. Valerie, already torn between the love of Henry, the welloff young blacksmith, and Peter, her close childhood friend and woodcutter, comes to doubt everyone, even her beloved Grandmother. The digital enhancements of this e-book—created as background to the upcoming film by Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight—include an audio introduction and seven short appendices featuring audio/video clips and images on the writing process, concept artwork, storyboards and design (sets, props, costumes). Neither interactive nor integral to the text, they are the functional equivalent of quickly digested color insert pages in a paperback. Written on the film set in the space of four weeks (according to the embedded video discussion among the director, scriptwriter and young debut author), the mostly pedestrian novelization ends prematurely, with an invitation to visit www.redridinghoodbook.com, which currently promises a final chapter “soon” (a countdown widget indicates “soon” is the movie’s release date, March 11, 2011). It’s hard to know if readers will bother. (Enhanced e-book. 12 & up)
PETER PAN HD
Barrie, J.M. Illustrator: Eulalie Developer: FrogDogMedia LLC | $0.99 Lest you think every storybook for young readers in the App Store is a computeranimated, pixel-perfect digital showcase for what’s possible, this one goes retro. Very retro. Based on a Platt & Munk book published in 1934 featuring illustrations by Eulalie, this slim take on the J.M. Barrie story will |
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h t i m o’ r e i l l y Tools of Change’s co-chair, Kat Meyer, made the following recommendations for can’t-miss sessions at TOC for independent authors: 1. Publisher CTO Panel: The Future of eBooks Technology Featuring Google’s Abe Murray. “If 2010 was the year of e-books, then 2011 is the year of e-reading. As reader preferences change, and the number of people buying and reading e-books grows rapidly, systems and interfaces must adapt. The very definition of ‘a book’ is in flux. Hear from a panel of publisher CTOs as they share their thoughts on evolving e-books technologies and what e-reading might look like in the future.” Tuesday, Feb. 15, 10:45 a.m.
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Q: What are the biggest mistakes traditional publishers are making right now in the e-book/mobile space? A: Treating digital like incremental revenue rather than the main show…I don’t think many publishers have treated [digital] that way, and not thinking far enough out along the line of curve toward the future is failing, and other people’s business models will make you go away. Amazon has been incredibly strategic. You have to admire how they’ve reshaped the publishing business...Publishing is at the tipping point. There’s not much of an outlook for traditional publishers, the retail channel is just gone. The question is will digital grow up fast enough to make up for that? …The [bookstore] chain[s] have put all the independents out of business, and now Amazon is putting the chains out of business. It’s certainly possible that Amazon is explicitly going after publishers, and I think they can survive, but publishers are going to have to find new channels. They’re also still thinking too much about replicating the book in an online space. And that’s just wrong. We can see in category after category where the book has been replaced by a new focus… at Tools of Change, we like to make the distinction between form and format—the form is the novel, literary biography and so on—the forms we have are a few hundred years old, and a number of forms have become obsolete [in print], like the dictionary. It still exists, but the online version delivers that same job…Publishers aren’t drawing the right lines around the problem—they need to see that in a way, Zagat is considered a publisher but Yelp is not, but they very clearly both do the exact same job for the actual end user. Q: In digital publishing, who’s doing a good job? A: Most of publishing, including O’Reilly Media, are far too timid. We’re not really saying, “How would you do this job in this medium?” And a good example of that is Apple and the Apple ecosystem. I think in many categories the app is going to replace the
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book. We’ve already built a significant channel in the O’Reilly store putting out books as apps. The apps are a real reinvention. For example, think how would you do a birding guide if you were an app. iBird Pro is a very successful, multimillionaire-dollar app, and he [Mitch Waite] just kind of thought about how he would reinvent that category. It was originally on his website, but the [Apple] app store gave him a much better monetization model. Cookbooks could go that route, a whole lot of practical books that could be turned into apps. Q: Curation/aggregation of info, separating the wheat from the chaff, is a big part of success. Are there steps a publisher can take to ensure that they won’t get lost in the fray? A: People are using Twitter and Facebook as the filter, but also Quora with people asking questions, getting answers. There are lots of different ways of curation, of finding the interesting people. Curation doesn’t mean being a gatekeeper anymore; you’re not a gatekeeper to publication, but maybe a gatekeeper to discovery. The constants remain— how do you build traction for authors? Publishers, assuming they’re not the smartest guys who invent the cool new app or site but replicate functionality, need to focus on being good middlemen for the channel and developing marketing. If you think about what publishers did
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p h oto C o urt e sy of O ’R ei l ly Me d ia
2. Bookselling in the 21st Century Featuring Kassia Krozser of Booksquare.com, Lori James of All Romance/OmniLit/ ARe Café, Jenn Northington of WORD, Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com, Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore and Malle Vallik at Harlequin. “The digital reading revolution impacts every aspect of the
He’s been dubbed the “oracle of Silicon Valley” by Inc. magazine for his uncanny ability to foretell what’s going to happen in publishing and technology. Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, a computer-book publisher and company that hosts tech conferences like Tools of Change, Tim O’Reilly launched the first web service for online book content in 2000 with Safari Books Online, well ahead of the digital bell curve. Here, O’Reilly took a few minutes to talk to us about obstacles to digital success, how authors can distinguish themselves online and what’s next in publishing.
“The big publishers are going to go through a world of hurt because the economics of the industry are shifting radically.” – tim o’reilly
in the old days, they were sort of a two-way filter. On one hand, they were filtering authors not just for reads but for the channel; they were also then providing services to those authors that were hard to get on your own. You didn’t start out, as stand-alone author, getting your stuff all laid out at Barnes & Noble and getting a huge buy. So publishers have to ask what’s the analogue to those roles in the digital era and how do we get noticed? What channels are there going to be? Hey can we sell directly to customers? Can we build a direct relationship to customers? Publishers used to be booksellers, printers, everything, and I think we’re going to see that again… Publishers say they’re afraid to compete with Amazon, but if you don’t, you’re hosed. Then it’s all in the control of one player, and they’re not going to be that kind to you in the margin. You have to be competent and develop the channel, like “Hey, we can do a whole bunch of things for you, featuring you at conferences, publishing your book, develop apps, do video training.” You need to be looking at all the ways you can make them money. Q: Are we getting to an era where traditional publishing is unnecessary? Can self-published authors do it all on their own? A: I think that can be true for some number of people, but that was also true in the print era, and while it was true for some number of people, it wasn’t true for all of them. Just look at myself, hey, I was a self-published author and I eventually became a publisher—you have to get good at a bunch of stuff besides writing your book. And you know, at the end of the day, it’s about how much money you make. It’s certainly true, there are folks out there offering a bigger percentage, but a percentage of what? So, like what’s the total revenue that comes to the author? It’s easy to be wowed by individual stories, but those are like, “Gosh, Barry won the lottery and that’s a business model. I’m going to buy lottery tickets now.” Some [authors] being successful doesn’t translate to everyone being successful. Early adopters are easier to get noticed, and it gets harder as the market matures…When you get there first, the real estate is cheap. Get there later, it’s more expensive. Rules change as time goes on. Will there be a need for publishers when markets mature? Oh, yeah, if they say, “I can help you get noticed. I can work the hard part of this business.”
A: One of hottest things right now is Quora. Also, I mention things like GoodReads, which is moving along quite nicely, but there are social networks specifically around books. I myself buy books based on recommendations from GoodReads more often than books recommended, say, on Twitter. You can’t do this paint-by-numbers. I suppose in the old days, if you can get a review in the New York Times or the New York Review of Books that really helps. But it’s always been a game of getting lots of different people to pay attention. Part of why some publishers, why some self-published authors, are really successful is that they learn how to do this all themselves. And some discover that, wow, this is really a lot of work and wouldn’t it be great if someone else could do it? And if someone can figure that out, hey, I got this nifty engine that can do all these things that are hard, bingo they’re a publisher. I guarantee that some of those starting out as self-publishers on Kindle will become fullscale publishers in coming years. Q: You’re called an oracle who can predict the future… What do you think commercial book publishing is going to be like two, three, five years out? A: The big publishers are going to go through a world of hurt because the economics of the industry are shifting radically. But if you’re doing a job that consumers really want, someone will come along and say, “I can work with those economics. That looks pretty good to me.” Someone who’s got a lower cost structure will fill the need. That was true back in the print days as well. When my business got started, I was like, “Wow, I sold 3,000 copies of that, we made $20,000.” At the time, that was a lot of money for a publisher who said if it doesn’t make $200K it’s a loss. I never saw a lot of the topics we published coming, and I thought, “Wow, this is a good business for me.” One thing as the company has gotten bigger, I remind my editors, my marketers, my team is that you gotta stick with stuff. There are always little guys who will grow up and fill the need. I’m not worried about the long-term health of publishing as activity. It’s going to change a lot, there are going to be new kinds of intermediaries, not just Amazon, and Apple will replace all kinds of categories of books as a new form.
publishing ecosystem, and booksellers face challenges from every direction. Yet today’s booksellers are energized, engaged and eager to meet new challenges. This panel of booksellers discusses today’s retail climate, providing valuable service to customers, and dealing with digital headaches.” Tuesday, Feb. 15, 1:40 p.m. 3. e-Reading Survey Findings and Research: A Look Behind the Numbers Featuring Sarah Weinman of DailyFinance, Matthew Bernius of Open Publishing Lab at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Kelly Gallagher at RR Bower, Peter Hildick-Smith at Codex-Group LLC and Jennifer Manning from Nielsen. “Wondering what’s behind the numbers of the most recent e-reading research reports? Join Sarah Weinman as she moderates a panel of e-reading study authors for an indepth discussion of their methodologies, respondents, data sources and, of course, results.” Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2:30 p.m. 4. Lonely Planet’s Gus Balbontin’s keynote Tuesday, Feb. 15, 5:05 p.m.
Q: In terms of marketing strategies, the role of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are crucial to promoting titles. What’s next for social media landscape? |
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SUNNY BUNNIES HD
TOY STORY 3 READ-ALONG
Blumberg, Margie Illustrator: Goulding, June Developer: PicPocket Books | $3.99
Developer: Disney Publishing Worldwide | $8.99
Adapting of one of 2010’s most acclaimed, beloved movies isn’t an easy feat, and, unfortunately, the app based on Pixar’s Toy Story 3 doesn’t come close to capturing the film’s magic or creating its own. Like other Disney “Read-Along” apps, it’s stuffed with features and extras. But the core story about Woody the cowboy, Buzz Lightyear and their toy-chest friends feels by-the-numbers; moments of great humor and poignancy in the film are reduced to bland, plot-point summations: “Buzz and the other toys thought Andy didn’t want them anymore.” But at least the app features soft, painterly illustrations that don’t seem lifted wholesale from the computer-animated film. Extra features include jigsaw puzzles, two songs with lyrics thrown in, pages to finger-paint and three short, not particularly entertaining games. The app also has several 3-D pages that require glasses available free at Disney stores. The 3-D effect on these pages isn’t as eye-catching as in other 3-D iPad story apps. There’s a lot on offer, but compared to other Disney Read-Along apps (some of which include video clips), this one feels rote and sluggish; it also sometimes crashes. It’s got high production values but sure isn’t inspired enough to reach infinity and beyond. (iPad storybook app. 2-10)
A bunny brother and sister go with their family to Piper Beach and spend the day splashing, building sand castles and flying kites. That night, back home, the bunnies relive their day in the sun on the living room floor as the bunny parents lie down, exhausted—an unnecessary story diversion in an otherwise quick read. Told in short rhyming stanzas (“Fling your flip-flops—Follow me!”), the app has minimal features, but it doesn’t need many with such sharply written text. Narration in a child’s voice is an option, as is word-highlighting. There are also short audio clips hidden throughout, which are activated by tapping on characters. The warm, earth-toned illustrations portray the stretch of a sunny day and its transition into purpleblue night. It’s too bad, then, that the illustrations themselves appear fuzzy and jagged at the edges, a disappointment on the iPad’s high-resolution screen. (iPad storybook app. 3-5)
THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS: OCEANS
Cole, Joanna Illustrator: Degen, Bruce Developer: Scholastic Inc. $7.99
LULA’S BREW
Dulemba, Elizabeth O. Illustrator: Dulemba, Elizabeth O. Developer: Rhodes, Jacob | $2.99
Ms. Frizzle, the adventurous science teacher who takes her students on memorable field trips, makes the leap to the iPad in an app that feels as crowded and full of activity as the ocean floor. But its impressive amount of educational content (lots of facts, lots of photos, videos and games) and the story’s off-hand, casual approach make it a successful intersection of learning and entertainment. Dialogue—even jokey speech bubbles and the boasts of a beach lifeguard—is all spoken out loud when tapped. As the bus turns into a submarine and Ms. Frizzle’s eager (yet captive) students hit the water, the sea’s inhabitants are presented in a series of projection-screen pages that pull down and offer short videos or photos with information about a species. For instance, “An adult flounder fish has both eyes on one side of its head!” There’s also a matching game reminiscent of Tetris, a mini-microscope game and more interactive toys to play with. Unfortunately, it’s not always clear how some of the games work or why some animals on a story page can be clicked on for more information but not others. For all its impressive material, it sometimes feels inconsistently designed and frustrating to actually use, especially for younger readers. The Frizz seems a natural for the medium, though, and this is a promising first adventure. (iPad informational app. 4-10)
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An app with a story that feels completely modern even as it eschews nearly all of the iPad’s interactivity features, this tale of a witch who dabbles in food (or is she a foodie who happens to be a witch?) feels like it’s missing a few ingredients. Written, illustrated and narrated by Dulemba, who has many printed books to her credit (Soap, Soap, Soap / Jabon, Jabon, Jabon, 2009, etc.), the rhymed narrative features amusing cultural touches parents and older readers will appreciate. While she’s supposed to be studying her potions book, Lula “watched Food Channel instead,” for instance. Lula dreams of having a restaurant and her own cooking show. The rhyming text aims for sophistication (“Gourmand Magazine / Magical Fusion Cuisine”), even if the early use of the word “boogers” feels like a sop to the wet-wipe set. Overall, rhymes and meter often fall flat, making readers wish the author had chosen a prose delivery. Moreover, for all its knowing allusions to foodie culture, the app has no hipster options or interactivity beyond simple page turns (via buttons; swiping by hand doesn’t work). The colored-pencil illustrations are attractive and look good on the iPad’s screen, but the bare-bones-app approach feels disappointing for such a spicy story. (iPad storybook app. 4-8) |
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“Thanks to a memorable marriage of impressive technology and seemingly hand-crafted storytelling, the well-worn piggy tale impresses at every page turn.” from the three little pigs and the secrets of a popup book
THE THREE LITTLE PIGS AND THE SECRETS OF A POPUP BOOK
RAPUNZEL
The Brothers Grimm Illustrator: Lara, Alexandra Developer: Oniric.co | $1.99
Illustrator: Brooke, L. Leslie Developer: Game Collage LLC | $3.99
Filled with digitally collaged illustrations and pages that take advantage of the iPad’s touch and motion features, this app stands out by mostly enhancing, rather than getting in the way of, a good Brothers Grimm story. The familiar tale of the beauty locked in a tower who lets down her long hair for a young prince includes painted-in pencil sketches of characters and crinkled-paper background textures that display beautifully on the iPad’s screen. In addition to fussily amusing British-accented narration, some pages have sound effects (a witch’s cackle, a bird’s chirp) activated by touch. On certain pages, the foreground can be shifted left and right by tilting the iPad. And on two of the story’s 25 pages, a black-and-white sketch can be colored in with finger motions. A handsome pop-up filmstrip bar provides easy navigation, and the narration is also available in Spanish. Whether the girl-in-distress-becomes-a-princess story line is still relevant after nearly 200 years is an entirely separate matter, Disney movie adaptations aside. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
Thanks to a memorable marriage of impressive technology and seemingly hand-crafted storytelling, the well-worn piggy tale impresses at every page turn. Using an extremely wide range of tricks, from line drawings and interactive full-color illustrations to objects seemingly held up and drawn back into place by pieces of colored yarn, the app nearly overreaches in its ambition but pulls back just enough to succeed admirably. Movable tabs similar to those in traditional pop-up books pivot characters and create action within Brooke’s classic 1904 illustrations. But the real showstopper is a unique X-ray feature. Present on most pages that have interactive elements, clicking the X-ray–glasses icon reveals the hidden springs, levers and pulleys that would seemingly cause the movement on the screen. It’s a surprising, extremely effective extra that coexists nicely with the well-paced text and an interface that utilizes realistic-looking buttons (the kind held onto clothing with thread). If there’s one thing to squeal about amid such nice design work, it’s that the first two pigs and the wolf meet grisly ends that are typically toned down in some modern versions of the story. Save it for older kids, who will love seeing how the movable parts work. (iPad storybook app. 5-12)
GRIMM’S RAPUNZEL
The Brothers Grimm Developer: Ideal Binary, Ltd. $3.99
MOON SECRETS
Developer: Genera Kids $1.99
Visually unique with engaging computer-generated graphics and thrilling transitions between a virtual book and pop-up playsets, this take on long-haired Rapunzel’s tower imprisonment just misses enhancing the well-worn tale by veering too far from the original story. The 3-D employed in the service of this app isn’t the kind viewed with special glasses; instead it’s the 3-D graphic effects common in video games and computer-animated movies and TV shows. Used here, the effects turn a digital representation of a fairy-tale book into a moving, animated pop-up paradise where trees, hills and objects readers can manipulate with their fingers spring from the pages. In between lightly illustrated pages of old-timey text are the interactive pages, which invite readers to grow flowers for Rapunzel’s mother, assist a prince on his quest to find the trapped princess and even drop vegetables into a pot for a romantic dinner. Strangely, there are no interactive pages or mini-games involving Rapunzel’s famous hair, a glaring omission. If only the story were as imaginative and full of flair as the beautifully rendered pop-up pages (which themselves seem oddly middle-American next to the old-fashioned look of the text). Instead, this version of the Brothers Grimm story is altered and truncated, exiting on a limp happy ending: The witch gives up Rapunzel without much of a fight, and, except
It opens with an eyecatching title page: A sleeping girl with blue hair floats gently on the water, wrapped in an orange leaf as ripples expand outward from below her. Inside, the unnamed girl who tells the story watches the moon from her telescope, surrounded by aeronautical clutter and funky wallpaper. “The moon is magic,” she concludes after seeing clouds take bites of the moon and watching an astronaut have a picnic on its surface. While it ends abruptly after a story that is more a series of declarations than a plot, the app contains some striking touches. The small lens of the telescope can be moved around to focus on more parts of the sky on some pages. In others, hanging stars can be swung and photos reveal extra pages when touched. While the app could be accused of being art-designed within an inch of its life, its visuals are lovely and dreamlike, the narration is all-but-whispered and the case for the moon’s beauty and mystery is convincing. It won’t replace Goodnight Moon, but it does extend that book’s magic somewhat. The story exists in a free app called “TouchyBooks,” through which individual storybooks, including this one, can be purchased and viewed. (iPad storybook app. 3-8) |
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for a brief detour to the Desert of Doom, there’s not much adversity to overcome. Disappointing. (iPad storybook app. 3-10)
child digging in a wardrobe need bother downloading this one. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)
THE BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR
LOLA & FRED
Heuer, Christoph “Pül” Illustrator: Heuer, Christoph “Pül” Developer: Pul Edition GmbH | Free
The Brothers Grimm Illustrator: Dotpixel Developer: Siena Entertainment LLC | $0.99 The traditional story of the pint-sized tailor’s apprentice who defeats “seven in one blow” (house flies, it turns out, not giants who are terrorizing his town) is attractively presented as part of the StoryChimes series of apps. With bright illustrations, very clear navigation and options and good character voices and narration, it’s quite promising. But the whole production swats itself with some errors (“laying” used incorrectly; the tailor’s voice says, “foilage,” where the text correctly reads, “foliage”; a giant “[takes] hold of the topmost branch” and “pull[s] them downward”). The illustrations, which are nicely colored and expressive, have some jagged edges in the line work; it’s unclear if this is an artistic choice or the result of a bad digital conversion or scan. They are, moreover, quite modern in style, contrasting oddly with the stately, at times archaic text (“the giants went into the wood,” instead of the more conventional “forest”). The app is otherwise quite nice to look at and was clearly put together with careful attention to presentation and style; it’s a shame the text doesn’t read as if it was given the same amount of nurturing. (iPad storybook app. 3-7)
Wordless and simply told, the app, based on the picture books by Christoph Heuer, is about the airborne adventures of a frog and turtle who dream of flying. Their failed attempts include a kite, a slingshot and a Wile E. Coyote–style rocket. (The first volume is free; four more books that continue the story are available to buy once the app has been downloaded.) The clean, handdrawn illustrations are funny, as are the characters; they evoke James Stevenson’s gentle zaniness. Shifts in perspective, facial expression and body language do the heavy lifting of storytelling admirably. But iPad owners may wonder whether the app wastes the format. The story is fine without text (or narration, of course), but it lacks even background music, an auto-play feature, touch features or anything else that would suggest it belongs on the iPad. Readers can zoom in on illustrations and view an index of all the pages, but that’s all there is. Simple is one thing, but this app begins to feel like an adaptation that could have offered much more. (iPad storybook app. 2-7)
THE BEST DAY OF SUMMER
SWEET PEA: WHAT TO WEAR?
Developer: Ivrysis | $1.99
Saddled with ugly, amateurish illustrations, tiny text, uninspired music and an ever-present toolbar at the bottom of the screen that looks like it came out of Windows 95, the app’s inoffensive-atbest story fails on all fronts. The story of a tiny cloud that looks for help to make it rain on the hottest day of summer may be a victim of globalization. It features three languages, including Greek (its origin language) and Spanish, but the English version is clumsily paced and badly written, with an ending that makes little sense. Some pages are crammed with too much text, but at least that keeps the app from adding more pages and more jagged, off-putting drawings. There are no interactive features beyond the option of turning off sounds, text and narration and the ability for readers to swipe pages. Even the app’s icon on the iPad home screen doesn’t list the name of the story, only, “PadTales1,” a reference to the publisher’s series of apps. Perhaps the story is in hiding; it’s not one worth flipping through, whether it’s summer or any other season. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)
Hartas, Leo Illustrator: Hartas, Leo Developer: Cook, Simon | $1.99
Hartas’ little blonde character, Sweet Pea, and her cat Inky show that Sweet Pea can dress herself to go outside, even if it takes a while, resulting in an absurd layering of clothes and requiring a fair amount of clean-up. The softly outlined and gently colored illustrations themselves warmly depict the many contortions a preschooler undergoes in readying herself for the day—but they receive no enhancement whatsoever for the interactive medium. The app is stripped down even beyond the most basic storybook apps. It doesn’t have read-along narration, menus, sound effects, animation or any kind of motion or touch features except the ability to swipe pages along and to start the story over once it’s finished. A less-is-more approach might work for an app with a remarkable story, but this one’s text lacks rhythm, its drawings display raggedly on the iPad’s screen and it features an abrupt, unsatisfying ending. Only those entertained by reading about a 240
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in t e r ac t iv e
E - B O O KS
Auryn: Honor the Storytelling Soul in the Digital Age B Y VIC K Y SMI T H
There’s a charming scene in app-developer Auryn Inc.’s Teddy’s Night that finds the titular teddy bear, his adoring little girl and a pair of mischievous mice all sprawled on the floor reading. That pretty much says it all about the approach the young company takes in adapting and creating stories for the iPad and other electronic technologies: The story comes first. Company cofounders Umesh Shukla and Amit Agrawal, together with business partner Sangam Pant (“I’m the good-looking one,” he jokes), recently took time to talk to Kirkus about their work.
Auryn’s earlier app, the companion Teddy’s Day, wowed us with its treatment of Bruno Hächler and Birte Müller’s What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Day? The 2004 picture book featured large |
double-page spreads in which the teddy’s owner speculated about its secret life but missed seeing what all her toys did behind her back. The app went to town with the premise, animating not just the teddy bear but the little girl’s doll and the pair of mice, using nowstandard devices such as iPad fingerpainting to help tell the secret story. Their December 2010 adaptation of What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night? is similarly inventive. The two picture books, European imports, seem to have been tailor-made for adaptation to interactive media, but the Auryn team readily admits they happened upon them more out of luck than design. “We’ve known their publisher, Michael Neugebauer, for a number of years, so it was easy to sign the rights. The rights these days are a mess, and we wanted to get into the market as soon as we could,” Pant says. Even if practical rather than artistic considerations found them their first material, the developers approached their subject with the utmost respect. “Apps are very different from picture books, but if you want to make an app that will fulfill the same functionality, you have to go back and think about what a picture book is,” explains Shukla. “It’s a very linear experience, like a long tunnel of doors. We wanted to make sure we were being faithful to the children and the way they experience picture books.” This care led to what amounts to a revolutionary decision in the app world: Children hear and read each page before they can begin to interact with it. Once the narration is finished, gentle highlights cue what elements can be touched in order to trigger animations (still others remain undocumented as a gentle challenge to children to engage). It’s a very gutsy move in a medium that seems to reward the impulse to instant gratification, and it leads to an enormously satisfying experience for patient readers.
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“We didn’t want to take away from the storytelling experience,” Pant says with conviction. “We imagined the way we would like it used, with the parent and child curled up together in bed, reading. We wanted to make sure the story experience was carried over into the app experience.” It’s no surprise, then, that the creators readily credit their own experiences reading with their children as inspiration for their approach. Says Agrawal: “I have two three-year-olds, and their feedback went into the development of both Teddy’s Day and Teddy’s Night.” Shukla adds, “My youngest is 11, and sometimes she will still come and cuddle up for a story.” He continues, “I am a lover of paper books as well, but one of the things that brings me to work every day is making apps that will help the bond between the parent and child become stronger. You can’t outsource the parent-child storytelling experience.” What’s up next for Auryn? Their adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is poised to hit the app store any day now—“Amit’s been sleeping half an hour a day getting it ready,” chuckles Pant—and they are actively working with Rosemary Wells and Fourth Story Media to develop a new character for a series of original story apps that will be organic to the iPad. The format may be changing, assures Shukla, “but the storytelling soul will stay the same.” And Auryn will be there to give it shape.
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A STORY BEFORE BED: THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER
socks we’ve lost) is that its introductory entry is really just a list of species, customs and characters, with no story to accompany them. It’s strangely ambitious cart-before-the-horse writing, as if J.K. Rowling had published her Harry Potter books as a series of outlines and glossary notes. SockPlanet may turn out to be an interesting place to visit, but its first view from Earth shows it needs better knitting. (iPad storybook app. 3-7)
Developer: Jackson Fish Market | Free
An extremely short yet effective example of what the A Story Before Bed app can do, this retelling of the classic nursery rhyme succeeds or fails in large part based on the reader’s own effort. Like all of the books available for free or for purchase through the app’s bookstore, readers record their own video narration using a PC or Mac computer and a webcam. While the process might seem cumbersome, recording the video only takes about as long as it takes the read a chosen book, and it’s almost instantly available online to view by computer, iPhone or iPad once recorded. In the case of Itsy Bitsy Spider— one of about 200 books available via the app—the illustrations are a generic kind of digital art that makes the titular character look more like a brown cotton ball with stick legs than an arachnid. Disappointingly, the spider makes it back up the spout with the help of a wind-blown leaf, which seems a bit lazy, even for such a tiny creature. But the app’s magic really is in the ability to record accompanying video; a young reader’s eyes are likely to light up at the sight of a parent reading the story on screen. That’s especially true for parents who can’t always be present; the app developer has made available free copies of its digital books to U.S. military troops and their children. While there’s no way to pause the video on the iPad app without exiting the story entirely, the small, sometimes grainy video box that sits above the digital book pages is still very compelling. It shows that even the best iPad app narration can’t compete with a story told aloud by a child’s favorite bedtime reader. (iPad storybook app. 18 mo.-6)
KEZZA BEE FARM ADVENTURES
Developer: KEZDAM PTY LTD | $1.99
Some readers will finds the gigantic, anthropomorphized honeybee in this app adorable, while others will deem Kezza a grating buzz of cuteness. But the big, baby-voiced character is at least housed in a solid interactive experience in which nearly everything on the screen can be touched to elicit brief animations and appropriate sound effects. Kezza is searching for flowers to draw some nectar, and the reader must guide her from one farm destination to the next, chatting with horses, pigs, sheep and other animals. If the (presumably young) reader doesn’t find the next destination right away, Kezza squeaks a hint, such as, “Do you see the stable?” Tap the stable, and Kezza says, “That’s right!” It’s a linear experience devoid of any on-screen text, which for this app seems unnecessary; the good bits are in the animal interactions, not the Point-A-to-Point-B story. The bright colors, cuddly depictions of the barnyard inhabitants (not an unsmiling face among them) and well-produced sound effects make it a warm, if not particularly memorable, farm visit. The app’s conclusion and key bonus feature is a computer-animated dance performance and tune sung by the bee. The song is catchy enough to get irrevocably stuck in the reader’s head. Whether that’s a blessing or a curse will depend on how likable one finds Kezza bee. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
SOCKPLANET—AN INTRODUCTION
Developer: JumpingLemon $0.99
ANDREW ANSWERS
The first in a proposed series about a world made from lost socks, this first entry feels less like a narrative and more like a sales brochure for a tale you’ll want to skip. It lacks many of the standard niceties that many iPad stories have (narration, navigation or any kind of interactivity besides slide-show–like page transitions) without offering an engaging first chapter to make up for the lack of features. The planet itself, a fuzzy, sock-puppet–populated place where “the floor is like a duvet and houses are made from shoe boxes,” is made up of blocky computer art and, for too many pages, white backgrounds that suggest either a lack of imagination or missed deadlines. But the most unfortunate part of SockPlanet (apart from the thought of all those missing 242
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Katz, Alan Narrator: Summers, Marc Developer: Ruckus Media Group | $2.99
Sharply written, with expressive animation that wouldn’t be out of place on a Nickelodeon cartoon show, this app takes a simple joke and amusingly ups the stakes all the way to the White House. The story, written by comedy scribe and poet Katz, is about a schoolboy named Andrew who exasperates the adults around him when they ask him to recite words starting with specific letters. A word that starts with I, if you please? “Impossible,” Andrew says. C? “Can’t,” he replies |
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“For readers still unconvinced that the features of the iPad can translate printed children’s books into full-blown multimedia experiences, this one will change your point of view.” from the wrong side of the bed 3-d
GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS FOR iPAD
with total confidence. Teachers, parents, the school board and, later on, the president of the United States beg Andrew to cooperate with their requests, but none of them grasps that Andrew’s answers are correct until the end. Clever young readers and word nerds will appreciate the pitch-perfect wordplay. The app also features a few short games that break up the narrative by using the iPad’s tilt feature to, say, guide Andrew to the principal’s office or a car to a specific parking space. They aren’t really necessary, as the story works well on its own, but they don’t impede progress either. It’s brightly, effectively narrated by TV-personality Marc Summers (who made his name by not talking down to kids on shows like Double Dare). Here’s a word for Andrew if he’s asked for another starting with W: Winner. (iPad storybook app. 5-10)
Developer: KwiqApps $0.99
Curiously drama-free for a story about a young girl’s encounter with three bears, this take on the classic porridge-for-thought tale feels too slight rather than just right. The illustrations are simple, colored- or collaged-in line drawings that are pleasant enough, in a bygone-days-aesthetic sort of way, but not surprising or eye-catching. The text is problematic; it’s got distracting spacing issues, and at least one page ends with incorrect punctuation. The read-along narration is poorly synced with the highlighted words in the read-to-me option, but those readers who want to go it alone will miss essential parts of the story. Aside from the aforementioned narration, a few fingeractivated animations and some sketchy navigation (some pages allow you to access actions with a tap; most don’t), the story of Goldilocks and her foray into breaking and entering has rarely felt so unexciting. This was one app that could have used some fleshing out and more interactivity to liven up a limp adaptation. At least the bears, drawn as more Teddy than Grizzly, are cute. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED 3D
Keller, Wallace E. Illustrator: Keller, Wallace E. Developer: See Here Studios $2.99 For readers still unconvinced that the features of the iPad can translate printed children’s books into full-blown multimedia experiences, this one will change your point of view. Based on Keller’s 1992 book, the app tells the story of Mott, a young boy who wakes up on the wrong side of his bed. Not the left or right side, but the underside. The world has turned upside-down (or perhaps it’s just Mott), and he spends the rest of the day walking on ceilings and, eventually, slipping out of Earth’s gravitational field altogether. The story makes sophisticated concepts of physics and perspective accessible. It cleverly explains the conceit, “If there’s a left side, then there is a right side, and if there is a right side, then there must be a wrong side, right?” The app can display the tale in 2-D or 3-D, but even in 2-D, Keller’s skewed views of vertigo-inducing bus rides (not to mention breakfast served on the wrong side of the plate) are gorgeously rendered. Unobtrusive instrumental sound effects punctuate the read-along narration, animations are minimal but effective and Mott’s audio reactions can be heard by tapping him. In 3-D, the app soars even higher; the effect works well even with cheap red/cyan glasses (available for order through Amazon.com from within the app for as little as $4 for three pairs). The pages work just as effectively when viewed upside-down, a good reason for repeated readings. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)
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TACKY THE PENGUIN
Author: Lester, Helen Developer: Oceanhouse Media | $2.99
Tacky the Penguin wears loud shirts and sings horribly, a contrast to the perfect, preened members of his flock (who’ve got names like “Neatly” and “Perfect”). But when hunters come seeking pretty penguins, it’s Tacky’s lack of… well… tact that saves the day. The iPad-app version of the 1990 book doesn’t work much to improve upon the hilarious first adventure of the “odd bird,” but the developer’s trademark less-is-more approach enhances what’s there without overdoing things with needless features. Animated snow is ever-present, falling slowly on every page. Background music blends gracefully with sound effects (the penguin singing is particularly well done). And the narration is lively enough to match the sharp text and expressive illustrations. Like many of the apps developed by Oceanhouse Media, every object and word on the page is read out loud when touched, and page flipping is done with simple swipes. As Tacky is prone to do to his penguin friends, the developers deserve a “hearty slap on the back and a loud ‘What’s happening?’ ” Charming and oh-so-neatly put together. (iPad storybook app. 3-9)
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“The lesson is that good work is its own reward and the Doozers do it happily, but readers may be left wondering if those little green drones need to form a union.” from what do doozers do?
ANDIE PLAYS PRETEND
WHAT DO DOOZERS DO?
McBlade, Jack Illustrator: LittlePinkPebble Developer: Okenko Books $3.99
Muntean, Michaela Illustrator: Venning, Sue Developer: FrogDogMedia LLC | $1.99
Andie’s playtime at home with her parents is an afternoon of pretending she’s a dog, then a cat, then a mouse. But Andie and her parents, who enjoy playing along as she makes believe, get captured in an imaginative spell that never reaches readers. While the choice to present Andie’s play literally is fine—rather than take readers into her imagination, the illustrations show her on all fours, puppy-like, or curled up on her mother’s lap as a cat might—the story is clumsily presented in other ways. Rather than take advantage of the iPad’s ability to enhance through narrative audio or through floating, unobtrusive text, this app instead intersperses illustrations with plain, text-only pages that bog down the story’s flow. And one instance, in which a stuffed animal is described as white but illustrated as orange, just seems sloppy. Andie’s play looks like fun and is illustrated with calming, earthy colors in line drawings and what appears to be digital finger paint. But it might as well be on paper, completely failing to utilize the iPad’s strengths for a story that clearly needs the assistance. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)
Based on the 1980s Muppet TV show Fraggle Rock, this app reveals the secret lives of Doozers, the little worker bees (who actually look like diminutive green snowmen) who continually build edible structures for the oblivious Fraggles. What the Doozers do is work, constantly. With their helmets, tool belts and work books (but, curiously, no clothing), they engage in large-scale, underground public-works projects. The structures they build, made from radish dust that’s been turned into sticks (“Make it tasty; make it quick!”), are eaten by the Fraggles, making room for more construction. It sounds like a perfect coexistence, but an undercurrent of class resentment seems to surface in the text and imagery. As illustrated, the shaggy Fraggles are happy-go-lucky, music-playing hippies. The text sniffs, “But Fraggles never build or scheme. They’d rather join the swimming team.” The lesson is that good work is its own reward and the Doozers do it happily, but readers may be left wondering if those little green drones need to form a union. Narration in the app is solid and well-paced, if a little in lockstep with the verse. There are options for highlighting read-along text and flipping pages automatically. Like the Doozer lifestyle it portrays, the app does its work efficiently. (iPad storybook app. 2-7)
WHEELS ON THE BUS HD
Developer: Duck Duck Moose | $0.99
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD Developer: Once Upon an App | $1.99
Based on the children’s song, this sunny sing-along’s opening screen invites kids to “Poke or slide things on the screen to see what happens!” On the titular bus, the door slides open and closed, windshield wipers swish to-and-fro and school children hop up from their seats; the activities are activated by finger presses and swipes. The sharp, digitally illustrated scenes are aided audibly by versions of the titular song in languages including English (male or female), French, Spanish, Italian or German, or performed with instruments like cello, kazoo and “Gibberish.” There’s also an option to record the reader’s voice to accompany the thin story, which consists of only eight pages. More suited for toddlers who want to get their hands on that iPad than older kids who want a narrative, the app has great presentation, but not a lot of re-read value once all the interactive animations have been fiddled with and the wheels have gone round-and-round a few times. For a truly exciting interactive bus ride, Paul O. Zelinsky’s 1990 pop-up adventure is still the gold standard. (iPad storybook app. 18 mos.-4)
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Ironically, it’s a long, tough slog for readers to make it up the mountain along with the little train who thinks she can make it over. The app begins promisingly by allowing readers to choose a train color and load up the boxcars with toys and anthropomorphized candy and fruit. But once the train gets moving, the story, told only in voice-over with no accompanying text for children to read, sluggishly crawls along; graphics fill in slowly, leaving some objects floating in space for a moment or two as one scene cuts clumsily to the next. The text is not the Watty Piper original; that, though cloying to modern ears, at least did the job fairly quickly. This is extended and awkward, with no compensatory decrease in syrupy sentiment. Once the train is in motion, there’s no way to control the narrative beyond simply waiting until the little engine needs help getting up a mountain via a series of finger swipes. The animation, featuring clean but bland artwork that wouldn’t seem out of place in a low-budget video game, is choppy, and the tedious |
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“More-subtle effects—puffs of engine smoke, leaves moving atop water—and visual cues that show young readers where to press the screen to interact show admirable attention to detail.” from the little engine that could —the authorized version
journey quickly loses its charm. The little engine that could ultimately makes it to town to deliver the goods to waiting children, but it feels like an interminable ride. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
needle goes into his arm. Filled with simple colored-in line drawings surrounded by lots of white space, the tale revels in pirate-y details (a treasure-chest-shaped shopping cart; dragons “so terrible that they will not be described in this book”—though they are depicted). The app’s Spartan interface includes pause/play buttons that only appear when the screen is pressed (along with an Info/Menu button). There’s also the choice of a child or adult narrator; listeners may find they prefer one cadence over the other or no narration at all, which is a third option. Writer/illustrator Roberts balances epic imagination and an everyday act of bravery to superb swashbuckling effect. (iPad storybook app. 2-8)
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD— THE AUTHORIZED VERSION
Piper, Watty Developer: Penguin Group USA | $6.99
I LOVE YOU THROUGH AND THROUGH
Stranded toys on the tracks and the little blue train engine who saves them are presented in a solid mix of old and new in Penguin Group’s “Official” app based on the classic story. Animating the version of the story credited to Watty Piper (a pseudonym of Platt & Munk publisher Arnold Munk), the app begins with the illustrations that date back to the 1950s and does an admirable job making the digital version seamless. It retains the style and intent of the original version, but it doesn’t skimp on multimedia features like read-along narration, objects that can be moved around the screen or tapped for sound effects and animation that dazzles without overwhelming the story or feeling too tacked-on. The blue engine, who famously chants, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can,” as she travels up a daunting mountain, leads a large assortment of large stuffed bears, dolls, a clown and other colorful characters. On some pages, the contents of the train can be rearranged, and individual characters can be manipulated; a giraffe’s neck can be flicked to make the toy animal’s head bob, for instance. More-subtle effects—puffs of engine smoke, leaves moving atop water—and visual cues that show young readers where to press the screen to interact show admirable attention to detail. In just about every way, it is far superior to the other, “unofficial” Little Engine That Could app currently available. Even the page index, allowing readers to skip to a specific page, is presented as a series of connected, scrolling boxcars; it’s a rolling train within the story of one determined little engine. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)
Rossetti-Shustak, Bernadette Illustrator: Church, Caroline Jayne Developer: Scholastic Inc. $4.99
Based on the 2005 board book, this Scholastic “Touch and Tilt” app retains the print version’s sweetness and soothing tone. Told in simple, declarative rhymes (“I love your fingers / and toes / your ears / and nose”), the story is illustrated by images of a young boy and his adored teddy bear in various situations and emotional states. Adding to the mix, the iPad version features brief animations and sound on each page—one for the boy and one for the teddy bear when each are tapped. There are also animations activated by tilting the iPad clockwise and counterclockwise, typically making the duo sway to and fro. The tilting animations sometimes get in the way of the touch animations, creating a delayed-reaction effect that may cause some frustration for its target toddler audience. Not every animated illustration works, stylistically; it’s doubtful any fans of the book were clamoring to see the gentle bear do a headspin, for instance. But the app features calm narration, tinkling background music and illustrations so soft and fluffy they could be confused for highthread-count bedding. Even the two-touch/two-tilt animations per page are reassuringly consistent. It’s practically a sleeping aid in story app form. That’s no knock; it’s just fine for parents of restless readers at bedtime. (iPad storybook app. 18 mo.-5)
THE BRAVE MONKEY PIRATE
Roberts, Hayes Illustrator: Roberts, Hayes Developer: FrogDogMedia LLC | $0.99
THE MONKEYS WHO TRIED TO CATCH THE MOON
Illustrator: Rye Studio $0.99
Modi, who looks like a hairless puppy, wide-eyed, tiny and pink, is actually a monkey (if an appealingly goofy-looking one). And not just any monkey, but a pirate monkey whose bravery is tested when a doctor reveals he needs a shot, “to protect him from scurvy or something.” Modi goes on an epic pirate quest to find a magical object to help him through the ordeal: a magic rock he’ll grip while the vaccination |
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One monkey’s curiosity about a strange circle in the water leads a large group of simians to try to rescue the wayward moon, which has obviously fallen. Bold, sharp, computer-assisted illustrations of monkeys with exaggerated, funny |
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INTERACTIVE
E - B O O KS
A Wish List for iPad-app Developers B Y P ET ER LEWI S
The concept of “book” has changed enormously in just the past few years. Where once it meant a series of printed paper pages sewn or glued together and held in a binding, it has expanded to include interactive experiences that may or may not involve paper at all. Given the rapidly changing nature of books, we asked some of the cutting-edge app developers who are busily reinventing the term to imagine what might be coming next. A book that can change diapers? Maybe not right away, but there’s lots on the horizon. Here it is …
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Books that sense your heart-rate and adapt the narrative to ramp up the tension to extraordinary proportions based on your personal neurosis. A kind of chooseyour-own adventure book, but one that responds to real-time biological feedback and adapts the narrative on the fly to create a story that is most disturbing to your unique psychological make-up. The book slowly learns through trial and error what freaks you out the most and then delivers on it. It comes to know you well, and can scare the hell out of you: the electronic equivalent of having Stephen King for a father. Also, books that generate themselves based on user-specified keywords could become a reality. For example, you could generate a “romance novel” that prominently features “lawnmowers” and “the color green” and the electronic-book software will send this data over the Internet to a self-aware, supercomputer in Arizona to automatically generate a Pulitzer-grade story including these criteria, and deliver it back to your iPad in seconds. — Chris Stevens, CEO, Atomic Antelope, Alice for the iPad
9 The most important feature of a children’s eBook is actually the same as a good paper book; it has a story that captures the hearts and imagination of people young and old. As far as features that distinguish e-books? They are more compact, so you can literally travel with hundreds of books, which is tremendously helpful for the car or bedtime while traveling. We would like e-books to be able to change diapers, but we’re settling for the fact that it makes it easier by entertaining a fussy child in a way that doesn’t rot their brain or poke their eye out. Another
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benefit is that there is no scratch-andsniff capability with the current hardware, because those tend to violate our senses more than delight them — Woody Sears, Co-founder, iStory Time, The Brave Monkey Pirate
9 The iPad’s touch- and gesture-based mechanics have given readers innovative ways to interact with e-books and storytelling in general. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see a frontfacing camera on the iPad, which would create new possibilities of sharing and personalizing your digital reading experiences. Perhaps a more revolutionary digital book feature would be voice-based interactivity: imagine you narrating a story and having the book app respond to what you say. Now that would be cool! — Calvin Wang, Founder & President, Loud Crow Interactive, PopOut! Peter Rabbit
9 Kids will be able to test, and more importantly apply, their newly acquired knowledge through simulations and quizzes right in the book, with immediate interactive feedback. Imagine realtime simulations to teach the principles of physics. Groups of networked students will be able to collaborate on more elaborate problem solving within the book itself. An in-book record of their thought process will be documented and preserved for teachers and parents to see. For younger children, books of the future will introduce literacy and language through an organic interactive combination of images and words. The earliest readers will be able to explore
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“Books with stories that happen in your city. You can walk to the places where the action of the book happens to see additional scenes through augmented reality.” — javi carrasco, software engineer, oniric.co
an alphabet that morphs into pictures and sounds related to each letterform. — Valerie Mih, Creative Director, See Here Studios, The Wrong Side of the Bed 3D
9 Customizable storybooks that use your Facebook friends’ names and photos to create the characters. Choose-your-own-adventure stylebook with games and puzzles. Your choices and skills determine the end of the story. Books with stories that happen in your city. You can walk to the places where the action of the book happens to see additional scenes through augmented reality. — Javi Carrasco, software engineer, Oniric.co, Rapunzel
9 Users will be fully immersed into the environment and development of the story. There will be sights, sounds and interactivity that not only create a unique story for each user, but draw the user into the story. In this future e-book, a user may be slowly moving through a torch-lit cave, searching for a band of pirates. The narration is played, the music is suspenseful and dripping of the cave walls can be heard. Now the pirates have been spotted, the music changes to high action and the user must help load the canons! The pirates are shouting at each other—and at the user. The user shouts back and the pirates respond! In this future e-book, the lines of distinction between game, book and cinema will become blurred, or disappear altogether.
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We believe that “books of the future” will not only be entertaining, but extremely educational, and these books for kids are going to evolve very quickly. Traditional textbooks and early reader books will get eclipsed by tablets and apps. Teachers will start using apps as part of their curriculum. For instance, apps will be used to send test info back from each student to the teacher. Teachers may transition to teaching and testing predominantly using an iPad. Kids will not think of learning and testing as such a struggle or chore, because learning will be integrated into fun interaction. Oceanhouse Media’s omBooks are created with the intention to not only entertain, but also help teach kids to learn to read. They are already being used in schools and in special-needs situations.
As we continue production on Bartleby 2, we strive to find that medium between parent-led interaction and independent exploration. Games are great and fun to play, but more importantly, there needs to remain a bond and respect between parent and child. Our goal is to create something that parents want to use and children want their parents to use with them. It’s a fine line to walk. How do we do it? For us it’s more about contextual references to things only adults will “get.” But there are features that we’d love to see that assist us with this goal. IPhone-driven apps on the iPad: Parents can “control” play from their iPhone while the child plays on the iPad, and interactive video—add that camera! There are endless possibilities if you think outside the “SDK.” But that takes time, money, and more time and money. Until the app store becomes a serious moneymaker, I doubt too many small developmenters have either in which to explore them.
— Karen Kripalani, Head of Marketing, Oceanhouse Media, Green Eggs and Ham
— Denise Van Ryzin, Co-founder, Monster Costume, Bartleby’s Book of Buttons
— Frank Ayars, President, Ayars Animation, Cozmo’s Day Off |
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THE BOXCAR CHILDREN MYSTERIES
facial expressions enliven a mildly amusing story that turns a corner when one of the monkeys catches a glimpse of the real moon up in the sky. The story’s narration can be heard in English, either of two Chinese dialects or Japanese in addition to the option for a reader’s own recording. The app also has a “Sleeping Mode” that allows the story’s audio to be played without the visuals, “So to help your kids fall asleep quickly.” Something seems lost in translation from its original Chinese when the story ends and an old monkey gives an explanation of where the monkeys went wrong: “There’s only one moon on the earth, and is up in the sky [sic].” While the app features some beautiful drawings, its story text and conclusion aren’t particularly well-written or edited—for a much more artful treatment of the same concept, revisit Kevin Henkes’ Caldecott-winning Kitten’s First Full Moon on traditional paper pages. (iPad storybook app. 2-8)
Box Set: Books 1-12; Enhanced Edition Warner, Gertrude Chandler Whitman (2,813 pp.) $39.99 | 978-1-4532-1117-5 Separate e-book versions of the entire Boxcar Children series are or soon will be available, but this “bundle” makes an economical way to pick up the first 12. The classic (“dated” to use a more cogent term) original line-drawn illustrations have been preserved in each mystery, but the type size and style can be altered to suit, and each opens with an image of a recent color cover. The “enhanced version” adds four professionally produced, two-minute-or-shorter video clips. These feature fulsome appreciations of the books and their original author by employees and volunteers from Connecticut’s Gertrude Chandler Warner Museum, overviews of the museum and some of its memorabilia—plus a 500-or-so–word biography of Warner and 10 photos of the author, her home and the railroad station that inspired the stories. The absence of Gertrude Chandler Warner and The Boxcar Children, the 1997 biography of the author by Mary Ellen Ellsworth, represents a missed opportunity. As it is, the extra content is no more than a lagniappe but provides at least a glimpse of the series’ live-wire creator for both young readers and nostalgic adult fans. (Enhanced e-book. 9-11, adult)
MAID MARIAN MUFFINS
Vander Salm, Jamie & Jessica Illustrator: Benaroya, Ana Developer: Maid Marian Muffins LLC | $2.99 Maid Marian is a Brooklyn resident who, with her dog Marvin, can’t seem to find a decent blueberry muffin in the entire borough. Their fruitless quest gives Maid Marian the idea of baking her own, leading to a muffins-by-bike enterprise that exists in the real world. The idea of a children’s story app that is in part one big advertisement for “Maid Marian” Jessica Vander Salm’s business may strike some as suspect (the story and app were created by Vander Salm and her brother Jamie). It’s not lacking for cute, funky illustrations, though, and it has a fresh, playful tone throughout. The narration is enthusiastic (almost excessively so), and Marvin’s expressions (spitting out a subpar muffin, plaintively donning a chef ’s hat) are funny. The trial-and-error process of creating the perfect blueberry muffin is also detailed amusingly—”They baked muffins that slouched… and muffins that shrunk… and muffins that sweated and smoldered and stunk”—in quite good less-is-more prose. The app eschews any interactive elements except page swipes, but it’s got personality to make up for that. The illustrated New York locales give the app a strong sense of place, and an About the Authors page might make readers wonder why more children’s-book apps fail to feature author/illustrator information. Even if it’s a business ploy, it’s an entertaining, seemingly well-intentioned one. Who can’t identify with love for a delicious, fresh-baked muffin? (iPad storybook app. 3-10)
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THREE LITTLE PIGS 3D
Wolf, Doug Franck Developer: Bronson, Rick $1.99
Labor-intensive to a fault, this 3-D take on the traditional story of swine siblings, a hungry wolf and a mini realestate bubble looks great. But it’s more work to read than blowing someone’s brick house down. The pigs and strangely tiny wolf of the story are rendered as blocky, LEGO-like figures. To see the animation on each screen, readers must slide an icon shaped like a pig’s head along the bottom of the screen or swipe along the image itself. There’s no text on screen: It’s hidden in a text bubble, accessible with an icon press. It’s no loss if readers don’t find it, as the limping verse is painful in the extreme. Turning the pages or hearing narration requires the pressing of additional buttons. Readers would need to touch the iPad screen about 88 times to see and hear all 22 pages. There’s no option for the app to turn pages or narrate the whole story automatically. The 3-D effect (glasses not included) works nicely most of the time, but it’s one more thing to adjust in an app that feels like a bunch of interactivity and very little story. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
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“...anyone who has not already read this essential history of the Nixonization of America, and especially anyone who did not live through the era, would do well to dig into this meatybook in this multimedia format.” from nixonland
documents released last year by the elusive and volatile hacker Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks whistle-blowers’ website. In addition to the newspaper’s own extensive news and op-ed coverage, including the texts of military and diplomatic documents published on the Times website, the book has an extended insider’s essay on the entire episode by Times executive editor Bill Keller, as well as profiles of both Assange and Army Private Bradley Manning, his suspected source. Keller details his six-month experience working with the “secretive cadre of anti-secrecy vigilantes” known as WikiLeaks, whose release of the candid documents about world leaders and events embarrassed the U.S. government. A Times team created a searchable database of the material: 500,000 military dispatches on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 confidential cables between the State Department and 270 U.S. embassies and consulates. Keller says the newspaper acted responsibly in publishing the documents, redacting information that might endanger lives. The book includes contrasting views as well as reflections on the episode’s implications for the future of secrecy and diplomacy in the digital age. Both Assange and Manning emerge as bright, attention-seeking outsiders from unstable backgrounds. Assange, envisioning WikiLeaks as a new “scientific journalism” allowing people to judge facts for themselves, became increasingly erratic as his notoriety grew. Manning landed in a brig, where he awaits trial. One-third of the book consists of solid, oldfashioned journalism, offering the context and background needed to understand the documents. With links to cables and images, a helpful glossary and an appendix of significant photographs, the text takes full advantage of the capabilities of the e-book format. An important book that gives coherence to a massive data dump.
adult interactive e-books THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH Follett, Ken Penguin Group USA Enhanced e-book: $12.99
Follett’s 1,000-plus-page blockbuster, originally published in 1989, morphs into a sprawling (1.6 GB) app, complete with text, videos and sound. Closely following last season’s Starz serial, Pillars seems as much a promotion of that film adaptation as a repurposing of the original novel. The text, of course, is here in all its glory, though the text is plain vanilla, without much fuss; it’s easy to navigate and to bookmark, but with all the visual excitement of a phone directory. The non-book elements are better handled, including too-short snippets from the series (with Ian McShane doing what he does best, namely playing evil) and Gregorian chants and other medieval tunes. The text and visuals are supplemented by biographies of the cast and, more usefully, of charts showing relationships among the principal characters, from the very bad to the very saintly. Still, the makers of the app might have done more to link these good things to the text, which sometimes seems an afterthought. Says Tom of the cathedral he plans to build, it’s “simple, inexpensive, graceful and perfectly proportioned.” This app really isn’t any of those things, though Follett fans may find it a source of wonder. Now, a mash-up with the text and David Macaulay’s book Cathedral (1973)—there would be a thing to behold.
NIXONLAND: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America Perlstein, Rick Scribner Enhanced e-book: $15.99 | July 2010 9781451606263
In its hardcover format, Nixonland succeeded in telling the complicated story of the 1960s partly through a deft use of narration based on the medium most Americans relied on in that turbulent decade: network TV news reports. This enhanced e-book version replaces the photos illustrating the book with more than 30 contemporary video clips scattered throughout, all made available by CBS News. The videos, few longer than two minutes and most considerably shorter, cover race riots, anti-war demonstrations, assassinations, the war in Vietnam, the chaos of the 1968 Democratic convention, presidential speeches to the nation and so on. Some of these replace and augment the coverage in Perlstein’s book based on NBC or ABC reports. Others, which Perlstein described in the text, are illuminating: for example, a segment on Stokely Carmichael’s introduction of the establishment-quaking phrase “black power” to the national discussion during an angry demonstration in Mississippi, and Walter Cronkite’s meticulous
OPEN SECRETS: WikiLeaks, War and American Diplomacy, Complete and Updated Coverage by The New York Times
The New York Times Edited by Alexander Star Enhanced e-book: $5.99 | January 31, 2011 9780615439570
Thoughtful analysis of one of the largest leaks of classified information in history—how it happened, what the secret documents say and what it all means. In its first e-book, the New York Times brings welcome order to the chaos of the hundreds of thousands U.S. government |
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h m i k e s a c k s Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason
Mike Sacks Tin House $13.95 paperback original March 2011 9781935639022
In Mike Sacks’ collection of humor pieces, Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason, it’s often technology that serves as a catalyst for comedy: One man accidentally sends a mass e-mail to his coworkers, revealing that he’s created a fantasy kingdom where he rules over them as a talking horse. Another Tweets from bed on his wedding night about chocolate donuts and Law & Order. While technology has the power to inspire what we read, Sacks also sees its potential to change how we read, especially with the increasing popularity of digital books and readers. He recently spoke to Kirkus about the future of the e-book and what he thinks it holds for humor writing, authors and readers.
A: I always thought of e-books as being sort of like the DVD extras on DVDs. You add more and hopefully a reader would buy both. So the e-book has more stories and also flushed-out stories, longer versions, more jokes, that sort of thing.
writers can write whatever they want in whatever style they want. We would see less lame comedy-humor type books and more books that would appeal to comedy nerds. It’s like the alternative music that’s played on the computer radio versus what’s being played on FM radio. Less corporation. It’s not touched by huge publishers. It’s just an individual viewpoint that makes it to the finished stage, which never happens or very rarely.
Q: How did you decide which content to include in the ebook version?
Q: Do you find yourself mainly reading on e-readers now or are you reading physical books?
A: In electronic more disparate subjects seem to work better. I just thought I would add everything in there in the electronic version.
A: A little of both, but I guess it’s the equivalent of when records became cassettes and cassettes became CDs. A lot things I’m interested in aren’t necessarily available on electronic, but that’s the thing—it’ll change quite quickly. I know a guy in New York who has no CDs. He has a huge collection of music just on his computer, and he has no books, no library. It’s all on his e-reader. The reason is he lives in such a small space and to him it’s what he wanted to do and where it’s going. It might look strange to those who did not grow up like that, but to those who are growing up like that, I think it will be the status quo in a couple of years, if not already.
Q: How does the e-book version of Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason differ from the physical version of the book?
Q: What’s your vision for the future of the e-book? A: I think in the future it will change publishing, like iTunes has changed music, in that anyone can just put it out there. I’m working on one right now for McSweeney’s, which is really tailor-made for the electronic book. It’s a history of canned laughter. The electronic book will have video samples from shows and sitcoms. It’s just something that wouldn’t have worked in a print version. I’ve been discussing—this is not definite yet— starting a book imprint for humor. A lot of that would be on electronic, where you could pop out books a lot faster. Part of the problem with publishing is that it takes two years for a book to come out, which for humor is a death knell. It shouldn’t be that long.
p hoto by jus t in b is h op
Q: How else could e-books change humor writing? A: The problem with humor is that a lot of writers for humor want to write stories that agents and editors aren’t really interested in. But with something like this, you’re skipping that middle man so 250
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detailing of what was then known of the Watergate scandal, before Watergate had even become a household word. Despite Perlstein’s claim to CBS News’ Bob Schieffer, in a video introduction to these media enhancements, that these clips “complete” the book, a hard-copy reader of Nixonland probably would not lose much, if anything, from skipping this enhanced version. Still, anyone who has not already read this essential history of the Nixonization of America, and especially anyone who did not live through the era, would do well to dig into this meaty book in this multimedia format.
While this format is up-to-the-minute, the prose and multimedia accompanying it (17 video clips, courtesy of CBS News) are firmly 20th century in origin and outlook. Famous for his sunny disposition, which seemingly spread to the nation like an infectious disease during his two terms in the 1980s, Reagan’s memoir reads like a series of screen treatments for Capra-esque movies starring the author as, alternately, a Jimmy Stewart–like stumbling naïf, and a Gary Cooper–ish man of quiet strength who shoots from the hip and speaks nothing but the plain truth. The videos complement this carefully crafted Reagan image, beginning with his elegiac address to the 1992 Republican convention in which he catalogued the momentous events he had witnessed in his eight decades: two World Wars, the Great Depression, a seething Cold War and the summits he took part in to end it. The clips, including several portions of fawning interviews over the years with Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, show Reagan in his white Stetson, on his Rancho del Cielo, staring soulfully into First Lady Nancy’s eyes, and doing the political job he always did best: making speeches to adoring audiences who hung on his every word. It would have been nice to see clips from his Hollywood career, but those who miss the political Ronald Reagan will find the enhanced e-book a suitably worshipful souvenir.
PETERSON BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA
Peterson, Roger Torie Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Enhanced e-book: $29.99
Peterson’s Field Guides were made to be taken, quite literally, into the field to help birdwatchers and nature lovers quickly identify specimens that often appear and disappear in a matter of seconds. It remains to be seen whether Appweavers’ new iPhone and iPad app of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt classic will improve on the book’s utility, but several of the app’s features, however, suggest they might. Perhaps the most dramatic advantage this format has over the book is the audio feature, which includes countless samples of bird calls. Just as dramatic, if not as obvious, is the apps’ employment of the content as a database searchable in a variety of ways: by group, taxonomy and species, for example. The search function, moreover, allows the user to combine any two or more variables—state, time of year, habitat, nest location, etc.—to narrow down the list of likely suspects. In browsing mode, as in the book, like species are grouped together on the faithfully reproduced illustration pages; unlike the book, the text entry for each species can be quickly accessed with a single tap of the text icon. The app also makes it a snap to keep lists of bird sightings—no more need to cram notes in the blank end pages of the book. Articles on feeding birds at home and stalking them in the wild are informative, if a little difficult to read on the iPhone (though easier on the iPad). Bound to become a must-have app for tech-savvy birders.
kirkus now on video As part of our new mission to bring you everything books, we are happy to present new and original video content, featuring author interviews, events coverage, book-club mashups and real readers talking about what they love to read. Go to kirkusreviews.com to get more of what you love about books—now in video. For our first video, we interviewed readers at a local independent bookstore, Book People in Austin, Texas, who talked about what they love—and loathe—about e-readers. See the video here: http://www.kirkusreviews.com/video/reviewers-reflect-on-ebooks/
AN AMERICAN LIFE: The Autobiography Reagan, Ronald Simon & Schuster Enhanced e-book: $9.99 | January 11, 2011 9781439141489
To mark the Reagan centenary in 2011, Simon and Schuster is re-releasing the 40th president’s 1990 memoir in several formats, including this enhanced electronic edition. |
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episode of Popeye the Sailor Man. Each incident is accompanied by a high-resolution video from the vaults of NBC, along with a still photograph that can be enlarged at a touch. The text is written in the present tense, lending immediacy to events, as with this from the Bay of Pigs fiasco: “The United States’ role in the invasion is not yet clear. However, Castro has insisted for months that the U.S. has been arming and training rebels to invade his Communist-leaning country.” A bonus is a set of outtakes from the last extended interview JFK gave, this one to Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, whose show was a forerunner of NBC Nightly News—a bit of synchronicity that explains current political commentator David Gregory’s presence at several points in the proceedings. Well-conceived and easily navigated; not quite comprehensive, but a great place to start.
interactive e-book round-up: j o h n f. k e n n e d y LET EVERY NATION KNOW: John F. Kennedy in His Own Words Robert Dallek and Terry Golway Sourcebooks MediaFusion | $12.99
JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY: History Maker
A well-made enhanced e-book that collects some 30 speeches by John F. Kennedy from January 1960 until the day before his assassination in November 1963. Presidential biographers Dallek and Golway are an ideal team for the task of providing background for the audio pieces that are the heart of this book. On that final appearance, consisting of remarks given at an aerospace medical facility in San Antonio, for instance, they observe rather mildly that Texas was “a source of some concern among Democrats as 1964 approached,” that being an election year that Kennedy was just gearing up for. (Kids, presidential campaigns didn’t last two years then, as they do now.) Against the audio backdrop, Dallek and Golway do a good job of supplying context to explain references that may not be readily understood today: Diem, the Bay of Pigs, U-2 (not the band), Sputnik. Even so, the text seems best suited to a readership with some grounding in political history—advanced high-school students, for instance, or general readers to whom such terms aren’t entirely foreign. Readable and easily navigated and bookmarked—a firstrate introduction to the Kennedy presidency.
Marc Schulman Multieducator, Inc. | $4.99
An overstuffed survey of the life of John Kennedy (1917–63), blending words, images and sounds into a serviceable though sometimes haphazard multimedia package. History Maker covers every aspect of the late president’s life, with some unexpected surprises—a photograph of 1925, for instance, showing young Jack in a uniform befitting a Keystone Kop, nightstick and all, and one of the president and first lady greeting the empress of Iran, Jacqueline’s simple tiara outshining the opulence of Persia thanks to a trick of the light. The text is light and often glancing: The overview text mentions the president’s service in World War II and asserts, “Lieutenant Kennedy was a certified hero,” without giving sufficient reason for that judgment. This is remedied in the secondary text, but hypertext links to that more circumstantial explanation would have come in handy. The abundant typos in the navigation menus alone (“The Thougts of Author,” “Helen Keller Visits the Presdient,” “Kennedy Kruschev Summit” “Address at Washinton University”) give the app a hurried, slipshod feel; so, too, do gaffes such as a repeated photograph of the crew of PT-109. Even so, there are many good and useful things here, including an excellent portfolio of photographs and a thorough timeline that add value to material that is readily available elsewhere. Indifferently designed, though easy to navigate. Useful for advanced students, but more appropriate for the compleatist collector of Kennedyiana.
JFK: 50 Days
Terry Golway and Les Krantz Running Press | $12.99 A thorough, well-designed overview of—yes, 50 days in the truncated presidency of John Kennedy, which began 50 years ago. Biographer Golway and reference writer Krantz interpret those incidents in short, factually correct texts marked by plenty of period detail. For instance, as they observe, the very first presidential newsconference broadcast on live television was one of Kennedy’s, this one on the occasion of yet another moment in the Cold War threatened to turn hot—and which preempted that week’s 252
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h j. a . k o n r a t h January has been a month of big firsts for J.A. Konrath—the self-published author, as of Jan. 26, has moved more than 18,000 e-books on Kindle and made about $42,000 online, including sales on Smashwords, CreateSpace and Barnes & Noble, for the month. As Konrath puts it on his popular blog, a Newbie’s Guide to Publishing at jakonrath.blogspot. com, “ ‘Amazed’ is no longer strong enough a word.”
SHAKEN
J.A. Konrath AmazonEncore (304 pp.) $9.99 October 26, 2010 B003M69XAM
Q: What went behind your decision-making to release Shaken like you did on Amazon Encore, first as an e-book, followed by print? A: I looked at how to get my books up on Amazon… I realized I could list books myself and it didn’t cost anything…I thought, I’ll price them really cheap, consider it a loss-lead, the whole point is for publicity anyway—the idea is you want to gain fans, and the only way to gain fans is to be read. Well, I made enough selling those cheap e-books that first month to pay my mortgage, like $1,500. Then Amazon Encore got in touch with me, the actual publishing arm, they take books people selfpublished and put marketing muscle behind them, release as both e-books and print and give them a second life… I’d written my books and still had the seventh Jack Daniels, so I asked, would you guys be interested in that? They were. Q: Tell us a bit about how the e-book format has allowed you to frame your story differently?
p hoto c o urt e sy of t h e au t ho r
A: The reason Shaken was a good match with Encore was that it allowed me to release two versions at once—Shaken bounces around three different time periods in Jack’s career, back in the ’80s when she first became a cop, a couple years ago, then modern times. In all three time periods she was chasing the same bad guy. The narrative is jumping around in time, following this villain for different crimes in different scenarios, and weaving them all together… The e-book has the author-preferred version, and you can also read the book chronologically. Q: You released the Kindle version last fall and are releasing the print book in February—what are you learning from this experience about the mix of print and e-book? A: The e-book that came out in October has done very well and is selling like crazy, and now I’m anxious and curious about the print version. Once people get a dedicated e-reader, they don’t go back to print. It becomes separate markets. I got my first Kindle six months ago, and I’ve bought 200 books. Now, I’ve always been a big reader, but I don’t think I’ve ever bought 200 books in a sixmonth period before. |
In the case of Shaken, it’s easier to release the e-book than print—the typing, setting, publicity, marketing, that takes a long time to do for print. What I find amusing about whole thing is that publishers have been windowing the e-book sales, releasing the e-book sales after print. We did the exact opposite. Q: What other factors help move books online? A: Amazon listened to me—Shaken was released for $2.99 with no DRM. That’s how I sell my e-books. On my own, I’ve sold about 120,000, maybe 130,000 now—I’m selling 720 per day. And these are the books that New York rejected. A low cost for a good book, that’s what e-book readers want—it’s like a buffet table. Are you going to go and have just one slice of pizza? No, you’re going to have several, a burger, some goulash. I have 19 e-books on Kindle myself. You can buy all of them for less than the price of two hardcovers. Q: You’ve also cultivated an online community of selfpublished authors, many of whom guest post on your blog. What are some insights you’ve gained from them? A: The question that constantly gets asked is am I selling so well because I had a traditional publishing background? Because I had a backlist? The answer is no. It helps, certainly, but based on the e-mail I get, my self-published books are helping to sell my traditional published books and not the other way around. If it were my backlist, there are many other authors, friends, I’ve told they need to do this…they have bigger backlists, in some cases bigger fan bases, so why am I outselling them? It obviously has nothing to do with my print background. Look at all these new authors with no traditional publishing background who are outselling me. Obviously, you don’t need a print backlist to do well on Kindle. You just need a good book at a low price with a good cover. –By Molly Brown
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rom an c e
Romance in the Digital Age Almost as Sweet B Y SA RA H WENDELL
Romance readers are the ideal digital book readers. I’ve said this at conferences like Tools of Change and Digital Book World, and at writers’ conferences and online. Other smart people have said it, too. We are the readers that digital book producers are looking for. We read voraciously, consuming one title after another, wanting books at 3 a.m. when the baby is awake and won’t go back to sleep. We’re also the ones who have “book emergencies,” which, if you’re a romance reader, you know is when you’ve finished a book and can’t get your hands on another, even though you still have some precious reading time left. Romance readers are particularly devoted to their books, so any technology that makes it easier to buy, access, carry and read books is a wonderful development for us. That said, digital reading in its current state comes with its own set of pitfalls, including the dreaded DRM, error-filled text and e-books that cost more than the print versions. Here, with an eye skewed toward romance, is a breakdown of the e-book world. 254
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Digital books: The Good…
Digital reading is the ideal match for an avid reader simply because of physical convenience. Digital books don’t take up room, nor do they require that you buy more bookshelves for your home. As Carina Press executive editor Angela James recently said on the daily Canadian talk show The Marilyn Denis Show, you can carry 3,500 books with you on vacation on your digital reader—imagine how much airline baggage fees it would be if you carried 3,500 paperbacks! There’s also the comfort of reading on e-Ink. Those who suffer eyestrain from looking at an LCD computer screen all day are often surprised at how different and how appealing e-Ink displays are. I know I was. The e-Ink, particularly on latest generation devices that have a higher contrast between the ink and the background, is very friendly to the eyes. I’ve not had any problems immersing myself in the experience of reading an e-Ink screen. In fact, I find it more comfortable than reading a book. Why? One reason: text size. I’ve joked that I’m an ideal test subject for digital reading device developers, because I’m an avid reader in her mid-30s with the eyesight of a 95-year-old. With the e-Ink display, I can crank the text up to “Great-Grandma Size” and read without my glasses. It’s marvelous to be able to customize the display, the text size and even the number of lines per page, depending on the book file, to suit your preferences. There are also a growing number of sources to access digital books. Most people think of the big ones, Amazon and Barnes & Noble at bn.com, but there are also small independent online retailers like AllRomanceBooks.com and publisher bookstores like Harlequin’s at ebooks.eHarlequin.com. Then there’s your local library— did you know that many libraries offer digital lending? Go to Search.Overdrive. com and click “Find a library” to see if your nearest branch offers digital lending. It’s wonderful, and since libraries
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pay a good amount of their not-forprofit dollars to have that access, if it’s available, use it! You don’t have to own a device to read e-books either. As a matter of fact, you don’t need to purchase anything at all, except maybe the book. Several different pieces of free software, from Amazon, B&N, Adobe and others, are available to read and download books on your home or work computer, and on portable devices like smartphones, iPods or iPads. Ultimately, digital reading has enabled me to simply read more books. I carry upward of 200 books at any given time, and whenever I hear about a book I might like, with a wireless-enabled device, I can buy the book within seconds and start reading it. I think everyone has heard what I call a “Kindle story” by now—the story of someone finding and buying a book in a place that is completely unexpected, a place where bookselling normally does not occur. Here’s mine: I read about a book in a short review in an airline magazine while the plane was taxiing to the runway. I reached into my bag, switched on my Kindle, found the book and downloaded it—all before the plane took off. Then I read it during the flight. Because of digital reading, bookstores have no boundaries. Bookselling and handselling can happen anywhere and everywhere at any given time. There’s a lot to love in digital reading: books available whenever and wherever you need them, the ability to read in many unexpected places and the ability to customize how books appear when you read them—all told, adding up to a wonderful experience.
And Now, the Bad…
Digital books can also be the catalyst of some of the most frustrating experiences of your life—enough to make you take a computer and chuck it out the window and toss your digital reader after it. New curse words have been
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formed by readers attempting to set up and authenticate a digital book purchase. It is baffling and intensely irritating to find how many hurdles are placed in the path of a reader buying digital books, especially when so many of these obstacles could be easily removed. This brings me to the biggest and baddest of all things bad about reading romance digitally—DRM. DRM stands for “Digital Rights Management,” or what I like to call “Driving Readers Mad.” It’s the security wrapped around a book file that is supposed to keep you from copying it or e-mailing it to 14 million of your closest friends. DRM alone covers many of the things wrong with digital reading as a user(not)friendly experience. There’s more than a few different forms of DRM, almost as many as there are e-book formats, which is another pain in the digital ass. Some DRM forms are tied to your credit-card number. Others require you to download a piece of software to your computer that then collects information and authenticates the book to that machine. That form of DRM is particularly troublesome—often there are limits to the number of authenticated machines you can have connected to it. Thus, if you upgrade to a new computer and have reached your limit in number of machines authenticated, it’s a troublesome and frustrating process to manage your library on the new machine, transfer those books to a new device or even open them to read on the computer screen. Basically, DRM can and often impedes access to books you already paid for and own. It can turn the process of buying a book into a 10-step process. The Barnes & Noble nook, and more recently the Amazon Kindle, announced sharing of digital book files as an option to make their bookstores and digital reading devices more attractive. The problem is that publishers are removing the sharing function on many popular books, even though the sharing feature is only available for one-time use over 14 days and renders the file locked for the original purchaser for the duration of the loan. As a point of information, public libraries that offer digital lending also have a limited number of copies of an e-book to lend—except for Macmillan Publishing, which refuses to make its digital books available for library lending. “Sharing,” where digital books is concerned anyway, has become a Very Bad Word, which makes me very sad and angry because sharing books I love is part of who I am as a reader and reviewer. Let’s take a look at the book file you’re buying, shall we? There might not be a cover. You might not get a table of |
contents or one that is click-enabled so you can select where you want to start in the text, which is a handy feature in anthologies. There may not even be a title page. You might open the file and start with page one, and woe-be to she who can’t remember titles and authors well. Additional material, like glossaries or indexes that appear in the print edition, may not be included in the digital file. Plus, the file itself may be riddled, and I mean riddled, with errors, from typos to conjoined words formatted incorrectly. Or the content may be clean, but the book file itself has no title or author information (known in the industry as “metadata”) that enable the book to be displayed correctly in a digital library. Instead of One Flew North by Jane Smith, the files show up on the reader as 4950295586-3.prc with no author, or as a book title with “Author Unknown.” Jayne Ann Krentz’s Family Man (Pocket, 1992) is available digitally for…$17.99?!
When a reader sorts by author or by book title, alphabetical order does nothing to help locate a book with an invalid file name or absent author data. One has to remove the DRM (yes, it can be done) to correct these metadata errors, if correction is possible. Publishers are sending consumers an unfortunate message with DRM-protected files—thanks for your purchase, but a subpar product is the best we can offer you as an avid reader. E-books can be more expensive, too. So, how about that for awesomesauce—you pay for a file that’s compromised by security, may be substandard, incomplete or riddled with errors, AND you might have to pay more! Thanks to the wonders of the Agency Model, five out of the big six New York publishers set the retail prices for digital books, and often they are higher than the comparable print version, or they’re just high enough to be ridiculous.
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Sometimes, even publishers outside the Agency Model price their digital books prohibitively higher than the paperback version, some in an attempt to drive traffic to their own digital bookstores. Here are some examples, including an older title available digitally: Jayne Ann Krentz’s Family Man (Pocket, 1992) is available digitally for…$17.99?! Jess Granger’s Beyond the Rain (Berkley Trade, 2009) is $10.20 for the paperback at Amazon, but $12.99 for the Kindle version. Hot Pursuit by Suzanne Brockmann (Ballantine, 2009) is $14.30 at the Sony eBook store, and $14.04 for the Kindle, but only $7.99 in mass-market paperback format. Romance isn’t the only genre affected by digital-pricing discrepancies either. For example, David Baldacci’s Hell’s Corner (Grand Central, 2010) is $9.99 in mass-market paperback, but $12.99 for the digital edition. It speaks volumes as to the positives of digital reading that despite all these annoyances and barriers, readers do buy and read digital books—and in record increasing numbers, per the International Digital Publishing Forum. In the third quarter of 2010, for example, the IDPF released sales figures that show digital books topping $119 million in sales, up from just under $100 million the previous quarter—the IDPF’s sales figures are almost always turgid and sexy in the way that only profitable sales figures can be. Certainly, the lineup of hurdles and obstacles when adopting digital reading can make it less attractive to techno-hesitant readers. By far the biggest hurdle is that by electing to use e-books, you are often made to feel as if you have dishonest motives and that you must prove your intentions over and over, each and every time you have to reauthenticate access to a book. Yet, despite the hassles, I remain a devoted e-book reader. I own a Kindle 3 and have tried just about every other digital reading device offered. What I like best about digital reading is that it is such a customizable experience. There isn’t one way to experience an e-book. Everyone does it differently. I love having control of the text size, the screen layout and, with syncing capabilities through the Kindle and nook apps for phones and PCs, the ability to read a book in an unprecedented number of locations. As a result, I read more often, in more places and more books. And reading more is always a good thing. Sarah Wendell is the co-creator, editor and mastermind of the popular romance blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
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e -readers Just a year ago, most e-readers used black-andwhite E-Ink displays and could do little more than pop up a page of text. But this is a post-iPad world— today’s tablets can be used for a whole lot more than reading books. Here’s a look at some of the newest e-readers out there. AMAZON KINDLE $139- $189
the other. Still, the Kindle’s real killer app is its bookstore, which is, quite simply, the best on the block.
BARNES & NOBLE NOOKCOLOR
$249
The original Barnes & Noble Nook seemed like a device in the throes of an identity crisis. Although its face was dominated by a Kindle-like E-Ink screen, it also featured a smaller tablet-like color touchscreen that was designed to make it easy to flip through menus. The new NOOKcolor is more tablet than Kindle. Gone is the E-Ink screen and in its place is a 7-inch color touchscreen (an omission that leaves Amazon as the only major manufacturer still making E-Ink e-readers) and the ability to run apps. Just be warned: While the device’s price might make it seem like an appealing all-around tablet alternative to the iPad, its operating system, which is based on Google’s Android mobile OS, has been modified to only handle a small selection of purpose-built apps. So no Angry Birds—at least for now.
APPLE IPAD $499-$829
true if you’ve just spent a day staring at a computer screen at the office.) Still, there is, quite simply, no better platform for digital magazines, and the Apple tablet has quickly become the leading platform for publishers looking to breathe life into their print publications. And while Apple’s iBook store may not have the largest selection of titles, this shortcoming can easily be circumvented by using the Amazon Kindle app to download and read books on the device’s 10-inch touchscreen. Nothing has been announced as of press time, but Apple is widely expected to release a new version of the iPad this spring, with a higher-resolution screen and built-in cameras.
SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB
$400-$650
If the iPad is a bit too big to serve as a take-anywhere e-reader, the Samsung Galaxy Tab might have it just right. Its 7-inch screen and 13-ounce weight are more pocket-friendly than the iPad, and easier to grasp with one hand for marathon reading sessions. And, unlike the NOOKcolor, which can only tap into a limited number of curated apps, the Galaxy Tab has access to the entire Android app store (including Amazon’s Kindle app). However, the Galaxy Tab is a bit on the pricey side for a non-Apple tablet.
MOTOROLA XOOM price not set
Three years ago, the original Amazon Kindle ushered in the era of the modern e-reader. And while the latest version still lacks the flashy color screens or apprunning abilities of its competitors, its epic battery life, easy-on-the-eyes 6-inch E-Ink screen and relatively low price keep the Kindle king of the pure e-readers. The latest model is more of an evolution than a revolution—it has slightly better battery life, a slightly better screen and stores a few more books. But its remarkably light weight (under 9 ounces) makes it the most comfortable to hold for long periods of time or to grasp in one hand if you are, for example, grabbing a subway strap with 256
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When it comes to running apps, playing movies and streaming music, nothing beats the iPad. But as an e-reader, the tablet leaves a lot to be desired—its 1.6pound heft is too heavy to comfortably hold with one hand for long periods of time, and its brilliant color touchscreen can be jarring on the eyes (this is especially
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If you’re looking for a simple e-reader that can do little more than display text, the Motorola Xoom is not for you. Stuffed to the gills with power, the Xoom’s spec sheet rivals that of a decent laptop—it’s got a dual-core 1 GHz processor, a full gigabyte of RAM and a large 10-inch screen. It’s also one of the first devices that runs the new Honeycomb version of the Android operating system, which is specially designed to run on tablets (previous Android tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, essentially shoehorned a phone’s operating system into the larger devices.) Sure, the whole thing might be overkill for a leisurely poolside read, but that’s beside the point.
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fiction THE PEACH KEEPER
O A Presidential Novel
Allen, Sarah Addison Bantam (288 pp.) $25.00 | e-book: $25.00 | March 22, 2011 978-0-553-80722-6 e-book 978-0-553-90813-8 In a North Carolina mountain hamlet, the renovation of a crumbling mansion reveals unsettling secrets. Paxton Osgood, pampered daughter of one of Walls of Water, N.C.’s, wealthiest families, is planning a gala to mark the 75th anniversary of the Women’s Society Club, founded by her grandmother Agatha. The invitations go awry due to a freak storm, which is a harbinger that dark forces still lurk at the gala site, the Blue Ridge Madam manor, once owned by lumber barons, the Jacksons, who lost their money when their logging grounds were turned into a national forest. The house, deemed haunted, was abandoned for decades until salvaged by the Osgoods, who plan on converting it to a bed and breakfast. Paxton’s brother Colin has returned from his world travels to landscape the grounds, but when a gnarled peach tree is uprooted to make way for a statelier transplant tree, a skull is found in the crater. Local shopkeeper Willa Jackson, whose grandmother Georgie was 17 when the Jacksons fell from grace, declines her invitation to the gala—her ancestral memories have made her hostile to Walls of Water’s affluent residents, and too many people recall that, in high school, she was a prankster whose antics were blamed on Colin. The skull undoubtedly belonged to Tucker Devlin, a charismatic, need we say devilish grifter who came to town in 1936, instantly captivating all resident females with predictably dire results. Devlin concentrated his blandishments on the Jacksons, persuading them to invest their last dollars in an ill-advised peach orchard at an altitude unconducive to fruit. Georgie now occupies the same nursing home as her former best friend Agatha, but only Agatha is still of sound mind: She reveals that she formed the Women’s Society Club not for philanthropic purposes but to reckon with Tucker. Discordant notes of magic realism at times distract from what is essentially a benign tale of spunky Southern women finding true love after overcoming not-very-significant challenges. Unmemorable.
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Anonymous Simon & Schuster (368 pp.) $25.99 | January 25, 2011 978-1-4516-2596-7
A gossipy, entertaining novel about presidential politics—and if this roman à clef got any more clef, it’d have to be printed on newsprint. Who is the O of the title? Let’s see: a sitting president who speaks of hope and change, surrounded by Chicagoans, beset by “a disorganized mob of conspiracy nuts, immigrant haters, vengeful Old Testament types, publicity hustlers, and people who just have way too much time on their hands”—to say nothing of a nastily reactionary Republican-dominated House on one side and disappointed progressives on the other. Fill in the blanks on who you think O ought to be; it’s not important, and we might just as well steal a page from Bogart and call him Doghouse O’Reilly. Whatever the case, this worm’s-eye view of extreme politics is a slightly sharper-edged version of The West Wing, dominated by world-weary but once idealistic operatives who dislike being thought of as operatives and who are loyal to a president who’s got just a touch too much on his plate: health care, climate change, war, terrorism and “a big, fat, catastrophic, global recession, courtesy of [O’s] predecessor.” Much of the action centers on wheeler-dealer Cal Regan, who understands politics for the bloodbath it is, though plenty of other people wander by with recognizable name plates (care to guess at the real-world counterpart of Avi Samuelson, “the president’s closest advisor”?). Happily for the nation, things work out OK for most of those concerned—even if O gets dinged up playing hard games of basketball. Did we mention that the president plays basketball? Well, he does, and if that’s not a giveaway... But no matter. It’s a shame that the book is surrounded by the cynical attention-getting ploy of a secret author, who will likely be outed as quickly as was Joe Klein when he published Primary Colors (1996), for the novel stands capably on its own two feet, and it really doesn’t need the extra layer of glitz its handlers layered on. Still, it probably won’t hurt sales. So who’s Anonymous? Who cares? O is a worthy read, no matter who the author.
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“Among modern epic spinners, Auel has few peers. And readers need not worry: There are enough loose ends to feed a half-dozen more books.” from the land of painted caves
FALL FROM GRACE
Arthurson, Wayne Forge (320 pp.) $25.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2417-7
Newspaper gumshoe yarn from the author of Final Season (2002). Fighting compulsive gambling and consequent mental problems, estrangement from his wife and children and homelessness, Leo Desroches—half Cree, half French-Canadian—has dragged himself off the streets and into the newsroom of a busy Edmonton daily newspaper. When Leo’s first on the scene when a corpse is found in a field outside the city, a sympathetic detective gives him unprecedented access to the crime-scene tent, and his scoop is that the victim was a young Native prostitute. Unfortunately, Leo is still a compulsive gambler and robs banks to feed his addiction—all it takes is a note passed to the teller and a look of determination. The police drag their feet over the case, yet Leo learns from the victim’s friends that girls all avoid a yellow pickup. More, Leo finds a series of similar crimes going back decades, but again the police show no interest. The paper’s editor, whom Leo once hired, gives Leo the job of Aboriginal Issues reporter, an assignment he accepts reluctantly, though it does help him reconnect with his Cree roots. Then a retired detective, Mike Gardiner, gives Leo an old, stolen file whose contents threaten to expose wrongdoing among swaths of the Edmonton Police Service’s brass. Regrettably, watching Leo piece his life back together is far more rewarding than observing his fitful and inexpert investigations of typical crimes where motives are obvious, evidence lacking and suspects in short supply. A promising protagonist is marred by tepid sleuthing and an ending that leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
THE LAND OF PAINTED CAVES
Auel, Jean M. Crown (768 pp.) $30.00 | March 29, 2011 978-0-517-58051-6 Auel, of Clan of the Cave Bear fame, adds a sixth volume to her Earth’s Children series, just over 30 years after the first appeared. Having delivered thousands of pages before these, the author finds need to backtrack a little at the very beginning of this installment; if it were a film, it would be voiceover, and it would be annoying, but here it’s mostly a gentle reminder of who’s who and who bears what credentials. Ayla, the heroine of the piece, for instance, is from the outset established as a self-starter and autodidact, having spent years studying “animals, chiefly carnivores, when she was teaching herself to hunt.” Ayla has other powers, too, and over the span 258
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of this installment we watch as she establishes herself as a peer of the loosely knit network of shamans and vision-seekers who guide the people of the Old Stone Age—powered, at one crucial point, by a righteous quaff of hallucinogens that draws her “into a deep, black empty space, a place as black as the inside of a cave, mindless, terrifying.” The lesson? Well, it’s not just say no, not for a budding member of the Cro-Magnon cognoscenti. Trips worthy of Peter Fonda aren’t the only modern touch; Auel also pairs Ayla up with a mate whose wandering eye befits an ancestral John Edwards. Sniffs the mistress in Paleolithic petulance, “Look at her flaunting that outfit,” but Ayla’s paid her dues and won’t be held back by a deadbeat husband; instead, she’s off in a flash to travel leagues and leagues, battle bears and lions and even catch more than a few clues that the world she knows is about to come to a crashing end. (Think climate change, for one thing.) As with her other books, Auel spins her tale with credible dialogue, believable situations and considerable drama. More than that, she deftly creates a whole world, giving a sense of the origins of class, ethnic and cultural differences that alternately divide and fascinate us today. Among modern epic spinners, Auel has few peers. And readers need not worry: There are enough loose ends to feed a half-dozen more books. We’ll hope to see more, magic mushrooms or no.
PULSE
Barnes, Julian Knopf (240 pp.) $25.00 | e-book: $25.00 | May 1, 2011 978-0-307-59526-3 e-book 978-0-307-59599-7 Elegance and versatility—those familiar Barnes strengths define this latest story collection from the distinguished British author. Six of these 14 stories are about contemporary relationships; another four are miscellaneous; and there’s a quartet called “At Phil & Joanna’s,” presenting four separate evenings of dinner-table conversation. The same hosts and guests form a group of upper-middle-class Londoners; well-fed, well-lubricated, kicking back. Their collective profile is fun-loving, casually erudite, liberal and bawdy. The conversation ranges from dog poop and prosthetic testicles to Latin tags and climate change to an overview of sex and love. Barnes artfully calibrates their dialogue so that it transcends brittle repartee to convey warm conviviality and humanist concern. Two of the relationship stories (“East Wind” and “Trespass”) feature male protagonists looking for a mate. In ways both funny and painful, they fumble their approaches to women. Two others are not quite so successful; “Sleeping with John Updike” fails to live up to its risqué title, while in “Gardeners’ World,” marital problems are obscured by horticultural detail. Their partial failure is more than redeemed by “Marriage Lines,” a wrenching study of a young widower’s grief, and the powerful title story about two marriages. The narrator’s admiration for his parents’ enduring intimacy grows as his own marriage crumbles. To diversify
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the collection, Barnes moves back in time. “Carcassonne” is a piquant inquiry into erotic attraction; the great Italian liberator Garibaldi figures prominently. Further back, in 18th-century Vienna, a most unusual doctor seeks to cure the blindness of a musical prodigy. The formal narration fits the period like a glove (“Harmony”). Most memorable, though, is “The Limner.” Long ago, a humble artist traveled on horseback, seeking commissions to paint portraits. Wadsworth was also a deaf mute. He is stiffed by a pompous bureaucrat, but nonetheless gives his undeserving sitter the dignity he craved. It is a moving affirmation of true dignity. Another impressive addition to an already impressive oeuvre.
THE SLY COMPANY OF PEOPLE WHO CARE
Bhattacharya, Rahul Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) $26.00 | May 3, 2011 978-0-374-26585-4 Words as musical notes, a book as symphony—so it is with this debut novel, occasionally rippling with pidgin English and yet always sparkling with literary insights, all set within the landscape of a forgotten corner of South America. A young writer from India travels to Guyana to report on a cricket tournament, and he becomes fascinated by the country, with its mixture of Chinese, Indian, Portuguese and African cultures. He soon returns for a year’s stay, seeking a thing he cannot articulate in a setting where his Indian culture was once identified as coolieman—an indentured laborer. Both intrigued and repelled, the nameless protagonist, sometimes called “Gooroo” by Guyanan friends, takes up residence in Kitty, a dilapidated Georgetown neighborhood. There he meets Baby, a “scamp,” a man who lives by lies and wiles. The two set off for the interior, Guyana’s violent frontier border where “porknockers” dig into the jungle seeking gold and diamonds. Bhattacharya laces his story with colloquial conversational references—bai, skunt, , cyan—but meanings are mostly clear in context. The narrative is also expanded by references to reggae and ska. The novel’s middle portion is less character-driven, but it does present an interesting social, racial and political history woven into a visit to Guyana’s coastal rice and sugarcane producing areas. The last part finds the narrator residing on vibrant Sheriff Street in Georgetown. There he meets de Jesus and Moonsammy, and tags along on a trip to Boa Vista in Brazil, which includes an illicit border crossing. He meets Jan, an exotic mixed-race beauty, and there is an immediate sexual attraction. The novel concludes with the couple traveling in Venezuela, a sometimes idyllic, sometimes ugly sojourn. Unlike the narrator, Jan knows what she wants from life, and the romantic interlude ends and the story concludes in a fashion as bitter and unsatisfying as real life sometimes can be. An exotic locale and lyrical language make for a dazzling debut.
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A DROP OF THE HARD STUFF
Block, Lawrence Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (320 pp.) $25.99 | May 12, 2011 978-0-316-12733-2 Matthew Scudder looks back at his first year off the sauce to recall that making amends can be murder. Years after he went to school with Jack Ellery, Scudder next sees him through a one-way mirror after Det. Bill Lonergan’s pulled Ellery in for a robbery. The witness fails to pick Jack out of the lineup, but it’s not long this time before Scudder runs into him again at an AA meeting. The two men get to talking about this and that, and Jack indicates that his sponsor, gay jewelry designer Gregory Stillman, is something of a Step Nazi who’s making him go through each of the 12 steps in the AA program. It’s step 8 that brings Jack to grief. Having prepared a list of the people he’s wronged, he’s determined to apologize to each of them and ask what he can do to make things right. One of them, a fence he set up to be robbed, beats him up; another, a stockbroker he sold bogus cocaine, thanks Jack for helping turn his life around; another, the mover Jack cuckolded, shrugs off his contrition on the grounds that his old lady was making it with everything in pants. But who reacted by shooting Jack in the mouth and the forehead? Accepting $1,000 from Greg Stillman to look into the people on Jack’s list, Scudder (All the Flowers Are Dying, 2005, etc.) is increasingly forced to confront his own attachment to the bottle and the certainty that Jack’s executioner doesn’t mind killing again. Sure, Block’s written stronger mysteries. But this lonesome, wintry, compassionate tale is guaranteed to get under your skin, and make you thirsty to boot.
MINDING BEN
Brown, Victoria Voice/Hyperion (352 pp.) $24.99 | April 1, 2011 978-1-4013-4151-0 Trinidad teen journeys to America in 1989, only to find herself trapped in thankless domestic drudgery. At 16, Grace leaves behind her small island village, her crippled diabetic father, her devout born-again mother and her younger sister. Upon arrival in New York City, the cousin who had promised to meet her flight doesn’t show. She ends up in Brooklyn staying with Sylvia, a matronly woman she met at a Crown Heights street fair. But Sylvia’s apartment is crowded and toxic: Lead paint peels off the walls, and one of Sylvia’s three children is displaying neurological symptoms. Grace finds a nanny position in a Manhattan high rise with a Jewish couple, Miriam and Sol Bruckner. Her duties extend far beyond minding 3-year-old Ben Bruckner. In return for a bed near the washing machine
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“Witty, thoughtful, briskly paced and entertaining—a terrific novel about excess, hubris, class and the age-old (usually one-sided) tussle between art and commerce.” from other people’s money
and $200 a week (often less), she’s expected to do all the household chores, cooking and laundry. Sol is passive-aggressive and may have had an affair with a previous West Indian employee, and Miriam alternately praises Grace and berates her for trivial infractions of arbitrary rules. The Bruckners agree to sponsor Grace for a green card but evade Grace’s questions about the progress of her application. Grace finds solace among her fellow nannies, who, with their charges, convene daily at the playground in Union Square. Her friend Kathy, also from Trinidad, but from a wealthier family, introduces Grace to the nightclub scene. Dave, the gay man who occupies the penthouse of the Bruckners’ building, seeks her help with his indoor tropical garden and becomes, besides Kathy, her sole trusted confidant. By age 18, Grace has learned dispiriting truths about almost everyone in her new home. Despite lyrical prose, the narrative does not develop so much as unravel according to vagaries of chance. The Bruckners’ casual cruelty beggars belief, but Grace’s inability to fight back is even more implausible. However, Brown is a new voice with much to offer.
CATFISH ALLEY
Bryant, Lynne NAL Accent/Berkley (336 pp.) $14.00 paperback original | April 5, 2011 978-0-451-23228-1 A well-intentioned debut of a woman finally rejecting the social and racial dictums of small-town Mississippi. Roxanne Reeves, a restoration expert and director of the Clarksville Pilgrimage Tour of Antebellum Homes, is asked to research the possibility of offering an African-American tour of her town (suggested by the group’s newest member, a Connecticut transplant who doesn’t understand the nuanced tension between the blacks and whites in Clarksville). Hesitantly, Roxanne contacts Grace Clark, an 89-year-old ex-schoolteacher to help her uncover Clarksville’s neglected history. Roxanne has no interest in the town’s black history; according to her “the War is over and the blacks got their rights, so why do we have to dwell on the past?” But she does want to impress Louisa Humboldt (who needs her mansion restored) and so Roxanne is willing to traipse around Clarksville with Grace as she is shown ramshackle testaments to the hardships faced by Mississippi blacks during segregation. Grace shows Roxanne the old schoolhouse for black children, now the lumberyard’s warehouse (whose owner, Del Tanner sadly discovers his father was in the KKK and involved in a lynching); the house of her best friend, Adelle Jackson, whose father was the town’s first black doctor; and the black-owned Queen City Hotel, where Louis Armstrong played. Grace’s youth is revisited through these tours, allowing Roxanne, who seems woefully uninformed regarding Jim Crow, to gain appreciation for the black community she and her social circle prefer to ignore. Along the way, Grace’s tragic story unfolds, centering on the tale 260
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of her brother Zero, his quest to become a doctor and the violent fate he met at the hands of Del Tanner’s father. Roxanne builds powerful bonds with the strong black women she encounters, which enables her to finally reveal the secret of her own less than glorious family origins. Bryant’s sprawling tale of segregation, perseverance and interracial friendships is heartfelt, if at times predictable.
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY
Cartwright, Justin Bloomsbury (272 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-1-60819-273-1 From South African/British novelist Cartwright (To Heaven by Water, 2009, etc.), a winner of the Whitbread Award and Hawthornden Prize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, a tale half comic and half cautionary—and all compelling—about the financial crisis. Tubal and Co. is a small, ancient private bank in London, and its longtime chief, Sir Harry Trevelyan-Tubal, has drafted his younger son Julian into the business and then retired to Antibes, where he’s been overtaken by senility. Meanwhile, Julian has fallen for the siren song of “risk-free” derivatives, and the bank’s hedge fund is awash in toxic assets—now toxic liabilities. Julian pumps into the bank as much family money as he can, and some backers’ capital as well, to prop up the balance sheet while he courts a buyer, a blunt-talking, rough-edged Chicagoan named Cy (and a rare dip for Cartwright into cliché). Meanwhile, Artair MacCleod, a septuagenarian actor-manager who’s fallen far, from Shakespeare in London to living in a Cornish boathouse and directing primary-school productions of The Wind in the Willows, finds himself suddenly cut off from his usual means of support. He was married to Sir Harry’s now-wife, Fleur, once an aspiring actress, and after Sir Harry swept her away, he arranged to pay reparations in the form of a modest annual “arts grant” to Artair. The wonderfully gusty, cranky, self-dramatizing Artair, no shrinking violet, lets a young Cornish newspaper blogger know about his plight, and by a series of small, odd, but persuasively detailed steps, Artair’s missing grant for provincial children’s theater comes to threaten the centuries-old bank’s sale, even its existence. Witty, thoughtful, briskly paced and entertaining—a terrific novel about excess, hubris, class and the age-old (usually onesided) tussle between art and commerce.
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LIVE WIRE
Coben, Harlan Dutton (384 pp.) $27.95 | March 22, 2011 978-0-525-95206-0 A client’s case of online harassment brings the chickens home to roost for agent Myron Bolitar and his whole family. Retired tennis star Suzze T (née Trevantino) is so happy about her pregnancy that she can’t understand why one of her virtual friends would post “NOT HIS” on her Facebook page. She swears that the father really is her husband Lex Ryder, the Australian-born rocker who’s been the public face of the band HorsePower ever since a lurid scandal involving 16-year-old Alista Snow sent HorsePower front man Gabriel Wire into seclusion over a decade ago. Now Suzze wants Myron to unmask the false friend who questioned Lex’s paternity and bring her runaway husband, who didn’t take the rumor well at all, back home. It isn’t long before Myron, frequently bailed out by his bionic preppy sidekick Win Lockwood, has identified the rogue poster. Instead of resolving Suzze’s domestic problems, however, the revelation just drags Myron’s own family—his estranged brother Brad, Brad’s wife Kitty and their son Mickey—into them, along with another notable family, the mobbed-up Ache brothers. How deep can Myron dig without running afoul of fearsome Herman Ache? And how deep does he want to dig when the results threaten his own parents’ peace of mind and his possible détente with the brother he hasn’t seen for 15 years? Despite the promise of dark family secrets, this is the most conventional of Myron’s recent cases (Long Lost, 2009, etc.), heavy with cheesy cliffhangers and eye-popping coincidences. Fans will be rewarded by the nonstop plot twists Coben must have patented.
RED ON RED
Conlon, Edward Spiegel & Grau (464 pp.) $26.00 | April 5, 2011 978-0-385-51917-5 Nick Meehan is the job, the quintessential New York City PD detective, also one who’s ironic and self-contained, intelligent and driven. And troubled. Meehan and his new partner, the hard-charging Esposito, are dispatched to investigate an apparent suicide in Inwood Hill Park. Meehan has been granted a preferred assignment, but only by accepting a troubling caveat. Meehan is to report on Esposito for the Internal Affairs Bureau. No cop likes a rat, and Meehan doesn’t need the IAB’s pressure added to worries about a failing marriage and a frail father. At the scene, the detectives confront Ivan Lopez, who reported the body, but his story is shaky, and Meehan is troubled. The next call takes the partners |
to the scene of a shooting. The victim has been murdered with a shotgun, leading to an incorrect identification. It’s not Malcolm Cole, drug dealer and possible killer. It’s his brother. Now the detectives are caught between Cole and a Dominican gang with major ambitions. With the pensive and self-aware Meehan doubting his own judgment, Esposito leads the way though a series of maneuvers, some legal, some not, and many skirting department rules, that land the pair in a gun battle at a Dominican gang funeral and then at a clandestine meeting with Cole at which a rogue IAB agent appears. Meanwhile, Ivan Lopez dogs Meehan, wanting help with his teenage daughter, Grace, either the victim of a gang rape or a participant in an orgy. Conlon (Blue Blood, 2004) is a gifted writer, surefooted on this terrain, drawing on personal NYPD experience to immerse the reader in the job, a milieu far more gritty and less glamorous than the car chases that pass for police work on screen. Meehan is a powerful character, realistic in his wry, existentialist approach and deeply sympathetic in his relationship with his wife and with Daysi, a Dominican florist, who may represent a second chance. A first novel sure to make the bestseller lists.
CENTURIES OF JUNE
Donohue, Keith Crown (352 pp.) $24.00 | May 31, 2011 978-0-307-45028-9
A novel that is sui generis—part fantasy, part realism, part dream-vision. Donohue starts the narrative by setting a challenging task—sustaining a 350-page novel that essentially takes place in a bathroom and bedroom. He works out the technical problem by having his narrator take a fall in the bathroom, and this tumble leads to visions, specifically a vision of eight attractive women inhabiting his bed. Each has a story to tell, and Donohue lets them speak with different voices and in different styles (appropriate because they come from different historical periods). These narrators include Jane (aka Long John Long), who as a young woman disguised herself in male clothing and escaped from her home as a cabin boy. After her ship is blown off course, she begins a long and lusty affair with several other castaways. Another narrator is Alice, who devolves into a witch and becomes deeply involved in the Salem trials in the late 17th century. We also meet the exotic Marie, whose body is covered with tattoos that reveal the story of her life. Originally a slave from Saint-Domingue, she is taken to New Orleans by her master and eventually becomes an exceptional chef. Other storytellers include Flo, who pans for gold in the 19th-century rush, and Bunny, a femme fatale right out of Raymond Chandler (or Billy Wilder). A tour de force in its mastery of styles, the book also has moments of high silliness—though toward the end Donohue weaves the threads of plot together in a surprising and affecting way. Peculiar and quirky—and sure to appeal to offbeat tastes. (Agent: Peter Steinberg/The Peter Steinberg Agency)
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“A novel about the stories we tell ourselves to give shape and meaning to our lives.” from kamchatka
KAMCHATKA
Figueras, Marcelo Black Cat/Grove (312 pp.) $14.95 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-0-8021-7087-3 A rich imaginative life helps a 10-year-old boy deal with the aftermath of Argentina’s 1976 military junta, though American readers not well versed in the political history of the novelist’s homeland might find some of this as perplexing as the narrator does. Originally published in Spanish in 2003, this novel of very short chapters—few longer than a couple pages—follows the structure of a school day (“First Period: Biology,” “Second Period: Geography” et al.). Yet such order is at odds with the chaos in which a politically active family finds itself following the coup. All sorts of people with whom the lawyer father had been associated were disappearing, and if the family didn’t want to join the ranks of the disappeared, it must abandon its home for a series of mysterious safe houses, and assume a new identity in the process. For the boy and his younger brother (known throughout the narrative only as “the Midget”), there’s a sense of adventure in all this, despite leaving friends and everything familiar behind. An avid reader and superhero fan, the boy rechristens himself Harry (after Harry Houdini) and finds symbolic refuge in the fantasy territory of Kamchatka, from the Risk board game which he plays with his father. “I believe all time occurs simultaneously,” the narrator keeps repeating, the novel’s mantra. And there are times when the narrative becomes unmoored from its chronological bearings, when the perspective is far more philosophically mature than that of a 10-year-old. “I believe that stories do not end, because even when the protagonists are dead, their actions still have an impact on the living. This is why I believe that History is like an ocean into which rivers of individual histories flow…We are bound together in a web that spans all of space—all living creatures are connected in some intimate way: a web large enough to include all those alive today, but also all those of yesterday and tomorrow.” A novel about the stories we tell ourselves to give shape and meaning to our lives.
THE FATAL TOUCH
Fitzgerald, Conor Bloomsbury (384 pp.) $25.00 | June 1, 2011 978-1-60819-329-5
A procedural novel of art forgery and murder, set in Rome and featuring Alec Blume, Fitzgerald’s Anglo/Italian cop. Irish artist Henry Treacy has been a longtime resident of Rome and is one of the best draftsmen of his generation— and not a bad colorist to boot—but he uses his special talents in less-than-savory ways, by forging works of art. When he turns 262
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up dead in the Piazza de’ Renzi, it’s not clear whether it’s an accident or murder. If the latter, then the foremost suspect seems to be John Nightingale, his art-gallery partner and arranger of the business end of their line of work. Another suspect is the mysterious Manuela, whose true name and identity are tracked down by Blume’s assistant, Caterina Mattiola. Because she’s new to police investigations (having transferred recently from Immigration Affairs to Homicide), Caterina learns the ropes from the experienced and affectedly cynical Blume. Fitzgerald’s clever conceit is that as Caterina learns proper (and occasionally improper) police procedure, the reader learns right along with her. It doesn’t hurt the investigation that Blume’s parents had both been art historians, so he brings an expansive knowledge to his inquiry. One of the nastiest thugs Blume deals with is Colonel Farinelli, a sadistic blimp of a man, and as moral as a raven. Blume has to double- (and sometimes triple-) bluff his adversaries, all of whom are trying to locate an immensely valuable (and real) Velázquez that Treacy has painted over. While Fitzgerald’s plotting is at times overly convoluted, his insight into the workings of the Italian police and Carabinieri is fascinating.
DECEPTIONS
Frayn, Rebecca Washington Square/Pocket (224 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | May 3, 2011 978-1-4391-9639-7 An art consultant recalls how the disappearance of a child wounded the boy’s family and destroyed his relationship with the youth’s mother. On a spring day in West London, a 12-year-old boy named Dan rides off to school on his bike. He fails to return that evening or the next day. His mother Annie, a widow and a college French teacher, becomes distraught, turning to Julian, her live-in boyfriend, for support. An inspector and his assistant arrive, and the inspector’s persistent questions reveal Dan was not the model child he appeared to be. Just before he disappeared, his school performance had declined, he had turned flippant, often quarreling with Julian, and one day he had come home sporting a tattoo. The official investigation suggests that a crisp police procedural will follow, one probing the turbulent changes that occur as a child becomes an adolescent. But as Dan’s absence stretches to weeks, months and then three years, Frayn turns to the widening fissure in Annie and Julian’s relationship. The two have always been opposites in temperament. Annie is the more liberal and casual of the pair; Julian the more conservative, taciturn and withdrawn—even repressed. They had quarreled bitterly over the choice of Dan’s school, Julian suggesting that the low-performing students at the one Annie prefers would negatively affect Dan. Once Dan disappears, recriminations over sending Dan to the school Annie favored rise up, as do other problems. Annie, trying to preserve life as it existed when Dan left, stalls on pursuing the investigation into his whereabouts, while Julian pushes forward
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THE PEN/O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES 2011
with it. Then one day, a man from Glasgow calls Annie to say her son has turned up at a shelter. Dan arrives home in London, claiming he remembers nothing of the past several years. Annie and Julian’s relationship is sharply drawn, but despite a startling revelation, the book’s second half lets the reader down with plot loopholes and unanswered questions.
THE BONE HOUSE
Freeman, Brian Minotaur Books (352 pp.) $24.99 | April 5, 2011 978-0-312-56283-0 Mystery aficionados may need to keep notes as they read this captivating thriller, the first stand-alone work from Freeman (Immoral, 2010, etc.). Mark Bradley, former professional golfer, chooses the road less traveled after injury ruins his game. He becomes a high-school English teacher and moves with his new wife, Hilary, also a teacher, to isolated Washington Island off the peninsula north of Green Bay, Wis. There the Bradley’s idyllic life implodes after he is accused of having a love affair with a student. The girl denied the affair, but Mark was terminated, supposedly because of budget cuts. The lack of evidence, however, didn’t keep Bradley from being shunned by a hostile community. Readers meet Mark and Hilary as they attend a high-school dance competition in Naples, Fla. Stressed and restless over the loss of his job and the maligning of his character, Mark takes a late-night walk on the beach. There he meets a drunken, bikini-clad Glory Fischer, younger sister of the student Mark was accused of seducing. Nothing untoward occurs, but Mark and Hilary learn the next morning that Glory was murdered on the beach. Freeman moves the action back to Wisconsin, and tagging along attempting to pin the murder on Bradley is Cab Bolton, the Naples police detective assigned to the case. Freeman peoples his mystery with a cavalcade of intriguing characters—Felix Reich, a hard-bitten sheriff; Peter Hoffman, the man who saved the sheriff ’s life in Vietnam; Hilary Bradley, a beautiful woman refusing to doubt her husband. The author blends multiple plot lines, leaving no loose strands, and there are more dead than one murdered girl. However, readers may come away with the idea that it’s Bolton who has the aura of a protagonist capable of carrying a mystery series. How many cops are sons of Hollywood film stars? How many cops have killed a lover revealed to be a terrorist? A book that presents sufficient twists, turns and traps to intrigue any devotee of the thriller genre.
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Editor: Furman, Laura Anchor (432 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | April 19, 2011 978-0-307-47237-3 Twenty pieces of powerhouse short fiction. Selected by a jury that includes A.M. Homes and Christine Schutt, this gathering of the current crop of PEN/O. Henry Award winners makes its own argument. Even so, volume editor Furman does almost nothing in her introduction to give the stories a context beyond “savage fierceness”; a more vigorous account of the whys and wherefores of the anthology, in the manner of Bill Henderson’s introductions to his Pushcart Prize collections, would have been welcome. If conflict is the necessary foundation for literature, then the collection abounds in it, to greater or lesser effect. Far and away the strongest piece, Tamas Dobozy’s “The Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kálmán Once Lived,” has the highly compressed makings of an epic reworking of Les Miserables, its setting a Hungary caught between its fascist rulers and the advancing Red Army, its dominant moods fear and shame. In “Pole, Pole,” Susan Minot outlines the toxicities within family and neighborly dynamics; Chris Adrian allows a grieving man to insult a small child to perfect effect in “The Black Square,” a fine piece of psychological writing; Lily Tuck’s “Ice” encompasses whole worlds, the landscape of the heart imposed upon the landscape of Antarctica, with its great herds of penguins: “They are small and everywhere underfoot and Maud feels as if she is walking among dwarves.” Conflict abounds, yes, but the greatest exemplars of that savage fierceness are stories that deal with the efforts of us puny humans to withstand the elements; much of Jim Shepard’s superb story “Your Fate Hurtles Down at You,” for instance, takes place atop a cliff, with little echoes of Max Frisch’s great yarn “Man in the Holocene” bouncing off the granite, while Matthew Neill Null’s “Something You Can’t Live Without” will give the claustrophobic new reasons to be glad they’re not trapped inside caves full of “blind wormy salamanders, hare-eared bats whose wings were silk fans brushing their faces.” As Minot observes, there are “three strategies for survival.” We know two of them, fight or flight. As for the third—well, about that this well-chosen selection has much to say.
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“Grippando brings back Miami attorney Jack Swyteck to deal with a cold case that wasn’t.” from afraid of the dark
THE LOVE OF MY YOUTH
Gordon, Mary Pantheon (320 pp.) $24.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-307-37742-5
After recently publishing more nonfiction (Reading Jesus, 2009, etc.), Gordon (The Stories of Mary Gordon, 2006, etc.) returns to the novel form in this examination of first love revisited. Miranda is an epidemiologist in her late 50s living in Berkley. Alone in Rome after a conference, she is invited to a dinner party where she talks to her high-school and college sweetheart Adam for the first time since they broke up in their 20s. Adam, who once had soaring musical ambitions but now teaches music at a private school, is in Rome with his musically gifted 18-year-old daughter, who has a grant to study there. The question of rekindling their old affair smolders but never ignites. Both are happily married: Miranda to an Israeli doctor with whom she’s raised two sons; Adam to his much younger second wife, the mother of his daughter—his first wife, the cause of his rift with Miranda, committed suicide. With time on their hands, Miranda and Adam agree to meet for daily walks. Each chapter takes place in a park or at one of Rome’s beautiful and historic sights, where the former lovers eat a lot of ice cream and delicious Italian meals. But any travelogue quality is eclipsed by ever so serious discourse between the two as they ruminate on the nature of youth and age, on their different approaches to life, on whether the perfect love they shared slipped away through missteps or because it was not meant to last. The daughter of WASP privilege, Miranda has always been an idealistic political activist, aware but unable to overcome her tendency toward self-righteous political correctness. From working-class Italian immigrant stock, Adam committed his life to music from an early age, and, despite his own disappointments, he remains slightly otherworldly and a bit haughty about his aesthetic sensitivity. Despite the elegant prose Gordon fans expect, both Miranda’s self-consciousness and Adam’s smugness infect the author, causing the novel and its characters to remain slightly off-putting. (Reading group guide online. Author tour to Boston, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.)
AFRAID OF THE DARK
Grippando, James Harper/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $25.99 | Lg. Prt.: $25.99 | March 22, 2011 978-0-06-184028-9 Lg. Prt. 978-0-06-201797-0 Grippando brings back Miami attorney Jack Swyteck to deal with a cold case that wasn’t. When 16-year-old McKenna Mays was brutally murdered, everyone knew 264
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who did it. In particular, Sergeant Vince Paulo, Miami PD, knew. At the behest of McKenna’s dad, he’d been engaged in a doomed attempt to watch over her, arriving at the Mays house with time only to ask for a name and was not surprised at the one she managed to supply. By all reports Jamal Wakefield, an ex-boyfriend, had not taken kindly to rejection. Then, moments after McKenna’s death-bed accusation, the Mays house blew apart, an explosion that destroyed Vince Paulo’s sight as well. And that, too—the deadly home-made bomb—was credited to Jamal. So no mystery, no bothersome unanswered questions about motivation, but also no Jamal. He’d vanished. Flash forward three years. Series hero Jack finds himself at Gitmo, defending Prisoner Number 977, who turns out to be the very same Jamal, who, interestingly enough, turns out to have a seemingly rock-solid alibi covering the time he was supposed to be murdering McKenna and blinding Vince: incarceration by federal authorities. Suddenly, McKenna’s homicide becomes a case of a different temperature, inasmuch as Jamal has so unexpectedly climbed out from under, and inasmuch as McKenna’s actual killer is presumably still at large. Now there are questions, bothersome indeed. How, for instance, to explain McKenna’s fateful I.D.? Precisely what had landed Jamal in Gitmo, and why does he refuse to talk about it, even to his own lawyers? All that is for Jack to sort out, a task not beyond him of course, provided he can stay alive long enough. By the skin of its teeth, Grippando’s 18th (Money to Burn, 2010, etc.) survives one of those evil-incarnate villains whose lack of nuance is an invitation to disbelief.
A HARD DEATH
Hayes, Jonathan Harper/HarperCollins (416 pp.) $24.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-06-169176-8 In Hayes’ entertaining sequel to Precious Blood (2007), forensic pathologist Dr. Edward Jenner feels the sharp edge of an old adage, the one about no good deed going unpunished. Having rescued a damsel in distress and blown away the misbegotten miscreant who was mistreating her, Jenner, brilliant forensic pathologist and all-around worthwhile guy, suddenly finds himself unable to practice his profession. Figures. An old saw wouldn’t be one if it couldn’t cut deep. So, New York State license suspended, Jenner hires on to sub for his former boss, now chief medical officer in usually sedate Douglas County, Fla., “a place where old money went to die.” Doc Marty Roburn and his beloved Roberta have hung out the gone-fishing sign, a vacation much anticipated and long overdue. It never gets to happen. With Jenner and an ad hoc lawenforcement team witnessing, a car is being hauled from an Everglades swamp, the aftermath of an unfortunate accident. Inside, there are two dead bodies, soon shockingly identified as the ill-fated Roburns. It’s clear that there is nothing accidental about their deaths, nor about the four others swiftly
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linked to them. Jenner is both heartsick and furious. And, being Jenner, he’s absolutely determined that nothing will prevent him from unraveling the who and the why of what was done to people he valued. As his investigation gathers steam, he will encounter corruption festering in high places, a relentlessly vindictive old enemy and, inevitably, several fresh varieties of damsels in distress. That Jenner will rise to the occasion goes without saying. No choice. He’s a gallantry junkie. A bit longer than it needs be, but the oh-so-likable Jenner is redemptive, proving once again he can shine with those other stars in the forensic galaxy.
BLOODMONEY
Ignatius, David Norton (368 pp.) $25.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-393-07811-4
Ignatius (The Increment, 2009, etc.) continues his series of top-notch CIA thrillers with this fast-paced new entry. CIA field agent Sophie Marx recently returned from an overseas assignment where she narrowly escaped being killed. Now Sophie’s working in a special off-the-books project run by the dangerous but capable Jeff Gertz. Gertz alone knows the full story behind the Hit Parade, a separate, untraceable operation of the CIA that is hidden in Los Angeles behind the façade of an entertainment company. From this seemingly innocuous office, Gertz runs operatives all over the world whose jobs, it appears, are to bring assets into the fold. But then something goes wrong, and those operatives start dying. One by one, the Hit Parade is losing some of its best agents to an unknown threat and Gertz, who never lets anyone see him sweat, decides that Sophie, his newly named chief of counterintelligence, is exactly the right person to keep his boss at the CIA and the White House off his back. When Sophie heads out to investigate, she finds much more than she anticipated. A longtime contributor to the Washington Post, where he has covered both the CIA and the Middle East, Ignatius writes with authority and skill about a shadow world in which nothing is as it seems and money is power. This may be fiction, but in the end the reader will be struck by how feasible the story really is. A terrific, believable novel about the intersection of politics, ethics and finance.
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MY JANE AUSTEN SUMMER
Jones, Cindy Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $14.99 paperback original | March 29, 2011 978-0-06-200397-3 A young Texan on the run from bad relationships, familial and otherwise, spends a summer in Mansfield Park with Jane. Lily Berry’s mother has just passed away from cancer, leaving her two daughters memento necklaces crafted from her only jewelry. Lily has immersed herself in Jane Austen’s novels, trying to parse her confusing romantic entanglements, most recently with Martin, who’s dumped her for excessive neediness. Shortly after his wife’s funeral, a new girlfriend named Sue takes over Lily’s father’s life, and clears her childhood home of any vestige of her mother’s existence. Mr. Berry exhibits shocking coldness when questioned by Lily and her sister Karen about his plans to marry Sue within weeks of his wife’s death. In despair, having recently been fired for reading Jane on the job, Lily, accompanied by an imaginary guardian angel she’s named My Jane Austen, boards a plane bound for a British festival, Literature Live, dedicated to combining Austen scholarship with Austen role-playing by fans known as Janeites. Lily pretends to be a professional thespian to act out Austen-inspired skits, and feigns expertise in business in order to convince the conference organizers she can help save the economically threatened stately home housing Literature Live. Aside from spats over skits, fomented by a tyrannical director, Magda, Jones’ chief preoccupation is parallel love triangles. Magda is having an affair with her supervisor until his wife and three screaming toddlers inconveniently show up. Lily is falling for Willis, a deacon preparing for ordination as an Anglican priest. Once the two overcome their reticence, a rival emerges: the daughter of wealthy sponsors of Literature Live. There’s the triangle at the center of Mansfield Park, the summer’s keynote novel. But most compelling and least developed is the triangle at the heart of Lily’s inherited anomie: She discovers that their father may have led a double life with Sue and that the Berry sisters are not his only children. An unfocused debut which dances uneasily around its central conflict.
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“Gutsy waitress tangles with homicidal hotshot. Guess who wins.” from the devil she knows
FIELD GRAY
Kerr, Philip Marian Wood/Putnam (448 pp.) $25.95 | April 14, 2011 978-0-399-15741-7 When fans meet Bernie Gunther in this latest saga in the adventurous life of the hard-bitten, sardonic policeman, Kerr’s (If the Dead Rise Not, 2010, etc.) stalwart Berliner detective is in pre-Castro Cuba. But Cuba is no refuge. To prevent being forced to work for Batista, he tries to sail to the Dominican Republic, only to be caught by a U.S. Navy patrol boat. It doesn’t help that his passenger is a rebel partisan wanted for murder. Gunther’s identity discovered, he is sent first to a military prison in New York City and then to the infamous Landsberg prison where the Weimar Republic held Hitler and where the Allies interrogated, tried and sometimes hanged Nazi war criminals. It does no good for Gunther’s future that he had served in a SS military police unit on the bloody Eastern Front and had more than a passing acquaintance with devils like Reinhard Heydrich. Kerr propels the story, framed around historical facts and characters, through several flashbacks. The author’s ironic perceptions find an SS colonel quoting Goethe as he presides over the massacre of a town full of Jewish civilians and Gunther wryly observing the Franzis (French), the Amis (Americans) and human nature in general: “Sometime morality is just a corollary of laziness.” The flashbacks are easily followed, from pre-war Berlin to the murderous hell of the 1941 Eastern Front to postwar slavelabor camps behind the Iron Curtain. Those dealing with Gunther’s search for a German communist in 1940 France are truly revealing, especially the descriptions of historical places like the concentration camps in Vichy France. While some might quibble over occasional long sequences of dialogue that would be better served with tags, Kerr writes Gunther as he should be—worldweary, sardonic and as independent as an introspective man might be as he ricochets between murderous criminals, hell-bent Nazis or revenge-minded communists. The double-double cross denouement suggests Gunther will live to fight another day. An accomplished thriller.
LECHE
Linmark, R. Zamora Coffee House (280 pp.) $15.95 paperback original May 1, 2011 978-1-56689-254-4 It’s 1991. A gay Filipino American returns from his home in Hawaii to his native Manila, where he is jousted by absurd encounters, thwarted desires, cultural and political upheavals and painful memories. Vince, introduced in Linmark’s Rolling the R’s (1997), hasn’t been in the Philippines since 1978, when he and his siblings left 266
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for Honolulu—six years after their parents flew off to escape the Marcos regime. Sensory overload greets him. The heat is stifling, he’s accosted by strangers attractive and not, a mysterious sleeping sickness is claiming men and a volcano is about to erupt. Having arrived with members of the Filipino balikbayan culture, who cart unwieldy boxes stuffed with food cans, shampoo bottles and designer jeans, he acclimates to a different social setting when his good looks draw the attention of showbiz types. A film and pop-culture obsessive, he becomes part of a world including President Corazon Aquino’s movie-star daughter, known as the “Massacre Queen of Philippine Cinema.” The title of the book, which translates not as milk, as in Spanish, but as a four-letter word, is as cheeky a novel as you’ll encounter. Broken up by postcard correspondence, dream sequences, glossary entries and “Tourist Tips” (“Staring is a favorite Filipino pastime. Don’t take it personally”), it’s nothing if not breezy. Linmark isn’t funny or cutting enough as a prose stylist, though, or innovative enough as a postmodernist to achieve the tour de force he’s after. As lacerating as he tries to be, his satire is rarely more than mild, and his attempts at magic realism fall short. But the book’s nonstop energy and nonstop attitude are addictive. And in Vince you won’t find a less predictable tour guide. A lively satiric return to early ’90s Manila, seen from both sides of the Filipino American divide.
THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS
Loehfelm, Bill Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (336 pp.) $26.00 | June 1, 2011 978-0-374-13652-9
Gutsy waitress tangles with homicidal hotshot. Guess who wins. Blue-collar Staten Island is the setting for Loehfelm’s third novel, as it was for its predecessor, Bloodroot (2009). Maureen Coughlin is a workhorse. She’s been waiting tables in bar/restaurants ever since she left home at 18. Now 29, she’s working nights at a joint called the Narrows; no boyfriend, no shoulder to cry on. “Hers was not a world where a girl could let her guard down.” Then one night her life changes, following a fundraiser for Frank Sebastian, a candidate for State Senate. He’s an ex-cop who owns a bunch of security outfits; his employees are like a private army. After hours, Maureen surprises her manager Dennis getting intimate with Sebastian in the dimly lit bar. It’s no big deal for the worldly Maureen. She makes it clear she won’t snitch, but that’s not enough for the hard-charging Sebastian. Guys with guns have the landlord’s son open up her apartment; her TV is destroyed. Dennis is found dead on the railroad tracks; an autopsy shows he had been strangled. Maureen takes refuge with her mother, an unsympathetic scold, but Sebastian tracks her down. Still, Maureen gains the support of homicide detective Waters, who had worked with Sebastian years before and knows he’s a monster of depravity. All he asks of Maureen is that she lie low. She ignores his
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advice. Armed with a switchblade, she confronts Sebastian at the gym. Her behavior is as dumb as that of Sebastian, whose mobster antics clearly imperil his election campaign, though the truth is we never believed in that anyway. The background, the hard grind of keeping customers happy, is authentic; most everything else feels fake. Loehfelm struggles to maintain suspense, then overcompensates for a sluggish pace with a high body count and an absurdly melodramatic ending. An attempt at gritty urban drama that falls way short.
SISTER
Lupton, Rosamund Crown (336 pp.) $24.00 | June 7, 2011 978-0-307-71651-4 Hitchcockian spookiness in this tale of two sisters—one living, one dead— in London. Beatrice Hemming hurries back to London from her home in New York when she hears her younger sister Tess is missing. Tess is an artist and a bit unpredictable, so it’s not clear when (or whether) she’ll turn up, but after a few days the police find her body in a public bathroom in Hyde Park. Not only that, but she had been pregnant and had just a few days before her death given birth to a stillborn child. Because Tess is found to have cuts on her arms and because her behavior had been erratic, her death is officially ruled a suicide arising from postpartum depression. But Bea is convinced Tess had been murdered. The prime suspect is Emilio Codi, Tess’ art professor, a married man who got her pregnant and who made it clear he wants nothing to do with the child. Beatrice (or Bee, as her sister called her) decides to turn detective, and she does this in part by inhabiting Tess’ former life. Bee lives in Tess’ apartment, takes over Tess’ waitressing job and even befriends someone who’d been involved with Tess in an experimental medical program during her pregnancy. Other suspects include a prominent doctor involved in this experiment to “cure” Tess’ unborn child of cystic fibrosis, and the head of a biomedical company about to make a killing in the stock market for a cure for CF. But Bee finds deeper mysteries—for example, that Emilio is not a carrier of the CF gene and hence could not be the father of her child. Lupton’s decision to make Bee the narrator—and to have her write to her dead sister—enhance the book’s eeriness. A skillfully wrought psychological thriller.
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DOLCI DI LOVE
Lynch, Sarah-Kate Plume (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | April 26, 2011 978-0-452-29675-6 A betrayed wife collides with two biscuit-baking, elderly Italian sisters who double as matchmakers in a bumpy romantic fantasy. Even adultery can lead to happiness, suggests Lynch (House of Daughters, 2008, etc.) in her off-balance tale combining whimsy, sadness, tragedy and farce. When hyper-efficient wife and corporate hotshot Lily Turner discovers a photograph in her husband Daniel’s closet revealing he has another family in Italy, she is forced to realize her 16-year-old marriage has been drained of magic by the unhappiness arising from her five miscarriages and a failed adoption. The daughter of an abusive alcoholic mother, Lily has also started drinking and, during a binge, books a flight to Rome to track Daniel down in the Tuscan village of Montevedova. Here she encounters Violetta and Luciana, the cantuccibaking founders of the Secret League of Widowed Darners, which matches up lonely hearts. Lily, earmarked for a handsome widower, is also befriended by Francesca, Daniel’s illegitimate daughter who is going through an unhappy childhood similar to Lily’s. Other parallels abound: pairs of sisters, melancholy men folk, adulterous offspring. In a credulity-expanding conclusion, Italian clichés are reasserted and broken hearts mended. An atypical, sometimes awkward (see the title) version of chick lit which cheerily proposes that two wrongs can make a right.
STOLEN LIVES
Mackenzie, Jassy Soho (256 pp.) $25.00 | April 12, 2011 978-1-56947-909-4 A plucky p.i. gets more than she bargained for when she signs on as bodyguard to a high-maintenance matron. In London, the police raid of a house of prostitution goes horribly wrong when one female suspect escapes after sinking her teeth into the neck of an arresting officer. About a week later in Johannesburg, Terence Jordaan, awakened late at night by a downstairs noise, goes to investigate. His wife Pamela, following a few minutes later, finds no trace of her husband. Private eye Jade de Jong arrives back at her rented cottage after an early-morning run to see the distraught Pamela sitting in a parked car just outside. Jade, who’s recently ended an affair with rugged (and married) police superintendent David Patel, needs the distraction of a case. She figures that guarding the histrionic Pamela will be a snap until an unknown gunman takes a shot at them. And the more Jade learns about the Jordaans, like the fact that Terence owns a chain of “classy” strip clubs and Pamela is a former call
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“An Indian-American variation on a stock tearjerker plot, saved by the author’s eye for detail.” from the girl in the garden
girl, the leerier she becomes. Complicating the case is the apparent disappearance of Pamela’s daughter Tamsin as well. David, meanwhile, struggles with his own problems with ex Naisha and a crime that hits close to home. David and Jade team up to untangle a crime wave with international dimensions. Jade’s sophomore adventure (Random Violence, 2010) provides a crackling pace and nonstop action, though little narrative finesse. Mackenzie’s Johannesburg is as gritty and dangerous as noir L.A. or the drug meccas of South America.
THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN
Nair, Kamala Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $24.99 | June 15, 2011 978-0-446-57268-2 A preteen girl stumbles across a host of dark family secrets on a visit to her parents’ native India. Nair’s debut novel opens with its 20-something narrator, Rakhee, leaving her fiancé a note saying she must hustle back to India to resolve a family issue. The story that follows explains her rush, flashing back to when she was 10 and describing the emotionally charged summer she spent at her mother’s bustling family homestead. When she first arrived with her mother, the scorching heat was a striking contrast to the chilly winters back home in Minnesota. But while she initially misses her father and the conveniences of American life, she’s soon comforted by the extended family, especially her three female cousins. From there, things quickly grow complicated: Aunts and uncles are squabbling over the rights to manage the homestead and the family-run hospital, while her mother appears to have rekindled her romance with a childhood crush. The starkest evidence that the family is fraying is a discovery Rakhee makes when she ventures past the property: a cottage occupied by Tulasi, a young girl whose facial deformation prompted her parents to care for her but hide her away. Nair gently packs the story with plenty of commentary about Indian domestic life, mythology and, most of all, its sexist culture—throughout the summer, Rakhee learns how restricted women are in marriage, property ownership and, as Tulasi proves, the right to a public existence. Ultimately, that gives the book the shape of a melodrama, which grows overheated in its climactic scenes. But if the final chapters are driven by familiar conflicts, charming individual moments are sprinkled throughout. Scenes in which Rakhee observes her mother’s guilt over betraying her husband reveal the girl’s growing emotional acuity, and Rakhee’s relationship with Tulasi is elegantly turned, conveying a sense of magic that comes with children having a space to share secrets without neglecting the sinister circumstances that locked Tulasi away. An Indian-American variation on a stock tearjerker plot, saved by the author’s eye for detail.
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THE DRUGGIST OF AUSCHWITZ A Documentary Novel
Schlesak, Dieter Translator: Hargraves, John Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $26.00 | April 19, 2011 978-0-374-14406-7
An exhaustive, dialogic novel of Auschwitz, centering on the role and trial for war crimes of the real-life Victor Capesius, a pharmaceutical-company representative who became SS pharmacist and, despite friendships with Jews and being himself half Jewish, selected victims for the gas chamber and profited from their gold. The narrator, haunted by his own distant connections to Capesius, who taught his mother dancing, and “Adam,” the self-described last Jew of Schäßburg, a secret camp diarist, use their dialogue to thread together accounts of survivors, SS soldiers, camp leaders and Capesius himself, absorbing memories, trial testimonies, conversations, letters and personal reflections. The narrator struggles to make sense of the horrific accounts of systematic murder and intimidation. While rich with sadistic, sickening fact, the dialogic framework opens windows into the psychological dimensions of this hell: the conflicted impulses of survival and altruism, as well as the selfhatred buried beneath the Germans’ persecution of non-Germans. Replete with the sadistic details of the Nazis’ program of racial purification, these intertwining and often conflicted accounts reflect the nightmares and self-delusions of participants as well as the tenacity of souls grappling to maintain some toehold on meaning amid the nihilism. The narrator seizes on the redemptive powers of poetry and language, manifested in the human spirit standing up to the void—a Rabbi at the moment of his own slaughter condemns his killers, a child’s eyes glint before the barrel of the small-caliber Mausers used in executions. Adam has inscribed his diaries in the German detested by the oppressed but defends this as the perfect medium for his account, despite the polyglot languages of the camp. For he sees himself as both a German and a Jew, and it is in his German, not the debased German of his captors, that he preserves an epic of conflicted identity. Difficult to stomach in its encyclopedic panoply of horror, but effective in its visceral recall of a present not so far removed from this waking nightmare.
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THE SINGULAR EXPLOITS OF WONDER MOM & PARTY GIRL
Schuster, Marc Permanent Press (280 pp.) $28.00 | June 1, 2011 978-1-57962-208-4
A suburban single mother of two juggles her motherly responsibilities, the editorship of a local paper and a growing addiction to cocaine. This debut novel by English teacher and pop commentator Schuster (The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: The Discerning Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who, 2007, etc.) aims a pointedly jaundiced eye at American consumerism. It acidly portrays the modern American family through the eyes of a matriarch transformed— not necessarily negatively—by her addiction to drugs. Audrey Corcoran is trying to get by in a world that’s been turned upside-down by her acrimonious divorce from her husband Roger, whose vivacious girlfriend Chloe causes Audrey no end of jealous exasperation. Her oldest daughter is reaching the age of teenaged resentment, while her precocious younger daughter more closely resembles a sophisticated teenager than the 8-year-old she is. On top of it all, Audrey supports the whole family with her gig in a dead-end job as the editor of a glorified restaurant review whose stock in trade is more of a complex barter system than functional business. So perhaps it’s no wonder that when Audrey begins dating Owen Little, the hipster owner of a local dive, she begins to feel some pangs of temptation. “Maybe I let it slip that a girl could always change her mind,” Audrey muses. “Maybe I mentioned that even though no always meant no, there was always room for negotiation. Maybe I gave Owen the impression that I was open to trying coke just once, just out of curiosity, just to see if it would do anything for me.” It’s not too many bumps later before Audrey realizes that her overcomplicated life is made much easier through chemical acceleration, not to mention that the dealing of many ounces of coke eases her financial burdens as well. Although the plot is a bit overfamiliar, Schuster does a fine job in maintaining Audrey’s aura of denial even as she plunges deeper into quicksand of her own making.
THE STORY OF BEAUTIFUL GIRL
Simon, Rachel Grand Central Publishing (352 pp.) $24.99 | May 4, 2011 978-0-446-57446-4 Outrage against a mental-health system no longer in service is the guiding force in this pointedly uplifting love story from novelist and memoirist Simon (Riding the Bus with My Sister, 2002, which became a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie) about a deaf African-American man and a mentally disabled woman who meet in a Dickensian |
mental institution in the 1960s and overcome all obstacles through force of will and spiritual goodness. In 1968, childless retired schoolteacher Martha briefly gives shelter to Lynnie and Homan, runaways from the residential facility in northern Pennsylvania, until the corrupt head doctor and his henchmen track them down. Homan gets away. Lynnie is taken back in a straightjacket, but the authorities don’t know about her newborn baby, delivered by Homan but the product of a rape. Keeping her promise to Lynnie, Martha hides infant Julia with the help of various former students and eventually raises her as her own granddaughter. Over the next four decades, Homan never ceases to long for Lynnie and the baby. Deaf since a childhood fever, he uses his street smarts, spiritual wisdom and mechanical skills to survive a picaresque series of adventures until he lands in California, where he more than prospers. Meanwhile, Lynnie remains in what she calls “the bad place,” where she was placed as a child by a middle-class parent embarrassed at her lack of cognitive skills. Fortunately, saintly staff member Alice helps Lynnie develop her artistic talent and keeps track of Julia through one of Martha’s students. The publication of an exposé on “the bad place” changes conditions in the late ‘70s. Gradually Lynnie learns to talk. She reunites with her beloved older sister Hannah, who sells Lynnie’s art in the gallery she runs. Now living independently, Lynnie still longs for Homan and Julia. The question is not if but how they will unite (and why resourceful Homan takes so long). Despite engaging moments, Simon’s didactic tone strains readers’ patience. (Reading group guide online)
44 CHARLES STREET
Steel, Danielle Delacorte (336 pp.) $28.00 | April 5, 2011 978-0-385-34314-5
After a breakup, a Manhattan gallery owner takes in tenants at her West Village brownstone. Francesca, 35, has to admit that her future with live-in boyfriend Todd is nil. But after Todd moves out, how to pay the mortgage on the old house they were rehabbing on Charles Street, and prop up the failing finances of the gallery they once co-owned? Francesca’s father, a famous artist, invests in the gallery, and Francesca advertises for roommates. Her mother, Thalia, a 60-something jetsetter, is too busy hunting husband No. 6 to help with anything beyond undermining her daughter’s self-esteem. Soon the house is occupied by a group that fast becomes Francesca’s surrogate family: Eileen, a 20-something transplant from San Diego, is obsessed with meeting men on the Internet. Marya, a newly widowed famous food writer, needs a New York pied-à-terre and, often aided by flirtatious French chef Charles-Edouard, cooks fabulous meals in Francesca’s tiny kitchen. Chris, a graphic designer, is shell-shocked by struggles with his ex-wife, Kim, who managed to get joint custody of son Ian despite the fact that she’s a heroin addict. Ian, a third
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grader, twice saved his mother from overdosing. Ian relishes his brief visits at Charles Street, especially when Marya makes him Mickey Mouse pancakes. Eileen’s latest online conquest, Brad, a tattooed biker type, is obviously trouble, but her roommates’ respect for her privacy has disastrous consequences. After Kim lands in jail for manslaughter after a fellow addict ODs in Ian’s presence, Francesca learns Chris and his ex represented a failed merger of two of the nation’s most powerful political families. Chris, attracted by Francesca’s comparative normalcy, impulsively kisses her. Wouldn’t Thalia be thrilled to see her daughter reel in the scion of a dynasty more illustrious than the Kennedys? But Francesca insists they are just friends. Classic Steel, phoned in. Much repetitious ruminating and a stultifying, unmusical prose style too often obstruct the intended edgy escapism.
TWICE A SPY
Thomson, Keith Doubleday (320 pp.) $25.95 | March 8, 2011 978-0-385-53079-8 Former gambler Charlie Clark and his Alzheimer’s-suffering ex-spy dad Drummond continue to dodge assassins, the CIA and international law enforcement alike while trying desperately to save Charlie’s girlfriend from kidnappers. Following the events in Thomson’s Once a Spy (2010), Charlie and Drummond Clark and Alice Rutherford are in Switzerland. Drummond is undergoing experimental therapy for his Alzheimer’s, while Charlie and former NSA operative Alice are exploring their newly found feelings for each other. The book opens with Charlie and Alice at a Swiss racetrack, and still constantly looking over their shoulder for members of the clandestine group the Cavalry, who are intent on killing them all before Drummond, a former member, reveals their secrets in a fit of dementia. On their way back to their hideout, Alice is abducted by a highly skilled team in a helicopter, and Charlie is told that the only way to get her back will be to barter one of the Cavalry’s fake nuclear devices disguised as a washing machine. The trick will be to get Drummond to stay lucid long enough to figure out where the device is hidden, all while dodging an ever-growing list of well-armed people who’d like to see them either locked-up or dead. Thomson again hits a sweet spot in this highly original thriller, balancing gripping action sequences with humor a step or two above what you’d expect from the genre. Things tend to drag toward the last pages as Charlie sets off on his own to tie up some loose ends, but not enough to really bring things down. Buoyant, fast and fun.
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THE GODS OF GREENWICH
Vonnegut, Norb Minotaur Books (336 pp.) $24.99 | April 26, 2011 978-0-312-38469-2
Things go from grim to worse for rising hedge-fund star Jimmy Cusack when his company collapses and the fund that recruits him is targeted for destruction by cutthroat bankers in Iceland and a sheikh in Qatar. One-time stockbroker Vonnegut (a distant cousin of the late Kurt) follows up his debut, Top Producer (2009), with a hectic Wall Street thriller. Cusack, a blue-collar Boston native, is sitting pretty with his 61st floor office in the Empire State Building, a $3 million condo in New York’s trendy Meatpacking District and a pregnant, loving wife with Beacon Hill bloodlines. When investors suddenly pull out of his hedge fund, he is left facing foreclosure. Serendipitously, or so he thinks, he lands with the prosperous LeeWell Capital in Greenwich, Conn. (“ceremonial capital of Hedgistan”). It’s run by Cy Leeser, a product of Hell’s Kitchen who has a weakness for expensive art and has a beautiful Brazilian romance novelist for a wife. Cusack quickly scores a major account he hopes will bail him out, but nothing and no one are what they seem—especially the sexy hit woman on the loose. The fund spouts leaks and Jimmy is left desperately racing against time to save himself and his wife Emi. He can only hope for help from his old Wharton friend, Geek, and a mystery man who leaves him notes signed with the name of former NFL quarterback Daryle Lamonica. Vonnegut knows the territory almost too well—it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with his dense inside plotting—and Cusack could hardly be a more callow protagonist. But the novel moves at such a fast clip, spilling goods on recession-era wheelers and dealers as it goes, that readers will get caught up despite the flaws.
THE RUSSIAN AFFAIR
Wallner, Michael Talese/Doubleday (352 pp.) $25.95 | April 12, 2011 978-0-385-53239-6
In Brezhnev-era Moscow, a young wife is torn between her highly placed lover and the KGB colonel who wants her to keep tabs on him. Housepainter Anna Viktorovna leads a drab and unfulfilling existence, crammed into a tiny Moscow flat with her down-and-out dissident-poet father, her inattentive husband Leonid and their 6-year-old son Petya, until she catches the eye of a Deputy Minister named Alexey Bulyagkov during an inspection tour of the construction project she’d been working on. Alexey arranges a “chance” encounter at one of her father’s readings, and soon the
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two become romantically involved. Unfortunately, their affair catches the eye of KGB Col. Kamarovsky, who Anna meets via her free-spirited journalist friend Rosa Khleb. Kamarovsky uses his connections to arrange for top-notch treatment for Petya’s terrible allergies, as well as publication of a new volume of her father’s poetry, and in exchange asks for regular reports on Bulyagkov, and especially on the work of Nikolai Lyushin, a scientist whose project falls under the purview of Bulyagkov’s ministry. As she truly has feelings for Bulyagkov, Anna is wracked with guilt, but continues to report to Kamarovsky. When she decides to terminate the affair and patch things up with her husband, currently stationed far to the east and pursuing an illicit affair of his own, she is forced to come to terms with her unreconciled feelings of guilt and duty, and in the process learns that nothing is, or ever was, as it seems. Wallner (April in Paris, 2007) expertly depicts the dreariness, paranoia and intrigue of the Soviet Union in the early 1970s, while simultaneously crafting a deep, heartfelt love story peopled by fully realized characters facing difficult situations, forced to act without a clear-cut notion of right and wrong. Tense, evocative and moving. (Reading group guide online)
A RACE TO SPLENDOR
Ware, Ciji Sourcebooks Landmark (544 pp.) $16.99 paperback original | April 1, 2011 978-1-4022-2269-6 Floors pitch violently, buildings collapse, San Francisco disintegrates and bosoms heave. Were there women in the professions in 1906? Yes. Were they uncommon? Yes. Were any of them architects? Apparently. Were they full of bodice-ripping passion? Well, for that, you’ll need to turn to this sometimes steamy, more often merely humid yarn. Amelia Hunter Bradshaw is a feminist pioneer, quite happy to shock the good citizens of California with her demands for suffrage and her perky proclamations: “It’s a new century, Mr. Thayer, and we ‘females,’ as you put it, are quite capable of seeing to our own affairs.” So it appears, though a brawny pair of arms and hungry set of lips have their place in the proceedings, too. Amelia knows her way around an I-beam, as we learn courtesy of Ware’s constant exposition: “From what we’ve seen so far,” Amelia’s partner in the building trades asserts, “it looks as if we’ll have to start in the basement and methodically work our way to the sky with reinforcing construction,” to which our heroine replies: “At least the basement’s already cleared of rubble and shorn up with support posts.” Alas, the prose bumps along like a bowling ball descending a shaky staircase, as witness the opening sentence: “James Diaz Thayer scooped the deck of cards bearing his initials into a pile on top of the late Charlie Hunter’s desk in the bowels of Nob Hill’s celebrated Bay View Hotel.” Anyone up for diagramming that one? Things don’t get much better, though there are some competently imagined scenes of death and destruction, and even of smooching. The tale grinds along like a right-lateral |
strike-slip fault to a long-awaited end that, regrettably, does not include much elastic rebound. In her favor, Amelia is nicer than Howard Roark and a worse shot than Leon Czolgosz, but that’s about the best that can be said for this book. A novel in need of a solid foundation.
ELEVEN
Watson, Mark Scribner (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-4516-0678-2 A heartwarming, humorous fable of a novel about the redemption of a popular radio talk-show host through his unlikely romance with a cleaning lady. In his first novel published in the United States, British radio and TV personality Watson writes of the awakening of a man who is very much connected to his airwave audience but does his (unconscious) best to remain disconnected from the rest of mankind. The name he has taken since moving from Australia to London is Xavier Ireland, mainly because the initials form the Roman numeral equivalent of his favorite number (the titular Eleven, which has 11 chapters and details the links among 11 otherwise random lives). His only real contacts other than the disembodied voices on the airwaves—a lonely lot, looking to him for advice or at least companionship—are his radio sidekick Murray and his fellow competitors in a weekly Scrabble tournament. Murray wants Xavier’s company at a speed-dating session, where Xavier meets Pippa, who becomes his cleaning lady. As the blunt-talking Pippa assumes an importance in his life that Xavier never anticipated, he revisits the shameful incident that forced him to leave Australia and forge a new identity in England. And he discovers that “every person is connected to every other...everything has a chance of mattering.” Though the novel belabors the “eleven” motif and its breezy prose has trouble supporting its heavier philosophizing, it will resonate with those who like to read about professionals looking for love and meaning in their lives.
WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT
Winman, Sarah Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $25.00 | May 1, 2011 978-1-60819-534-3
The offbeat coming-of-age story of Elly, an English girl with an overactive imagination, an intense bond with her older brother, a Belgian hare named god and multiple dates with destiny in post-9/11 New York. British actress Winman’s fiction debut, spanning the late 1960s and early 2000s, boasts one of the more endearingly
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“A mildly amusing debut, with the attractive lesbian sleuth yet another Stephanie Plum wannabe.” from bingo barge murder
unconventional families in a while. It’s an open secret that Elly’s father’s lesbian sister has long been enamored of Elly’s mother—whom her father married largely as a favor to his sibling. Elly’s brother Joe, who is five years older, has known he was gay since he was little. The household is completed by a foppish, aging border and a female Shirley Bassey impersonator. And then there is Elly’s mysterious friend Jenny Penny, whom she rescues from neglect at the hands of Jenny’s looseliving single mother but can’t rescue from a murder conviction later in life. As often as life affirms itself in the book, dark clouds hover: Elly’s mother’s parents were killed in a freak accident, Elly’s father narrowly escapes a bomb blast on a tube train, there are sexual abuses and cancers from which to recover—and, in the second half, there is the horrific bombing of the twin towers. True to the title of a newspaper column Elly now writes about her personal history, Joe and the rediscovered love of his life Charlie both become lost and then found again following the blasts. Though the first half of the book is fresher and more striking then the vaguely familiar New York part (the scene in which Elly auditions for a school pageant in dark glasses, “a cross between Roy Orbison and the dwarf in the film Don’t Look Now,” is priceless), Winman mostly lives up to the advance word on the novel. Her quirky voice maintains its energy; even at her most precocious, Elly never wears out her welcome. A freshly rendered tale of growing up and living in the world by a late-starting author with a bright future. (Reading group guide online)
THE BEGINNERS
Wolff, Rebecca Riverhead (304 pp.) $25.95 | June 30, 2011 978-1-59448-799-6
A teenage girl’s life is unsettled when a young couple moves to town in this eerie literary fiction debut. Ginger, the heroine of the novel, is a bookish 15-year-old girl whose life thus far has been circumscribed by her family, her job at a local restaurant and hanging out with her sole close friend, Cherry. Her hometown of Wick, Mass., is unassuming as well, though it has hints of a dark history relating to the Salem witch trials. Arriving to break Ginger out of her just-so existence are Theo and Raquel Motherwell, who charm her with their big-city sophistication, wit and candor about sex. That last part is especially important: This is ultimately a book about sexual awakening (the title derives from a virgin-themed porn mag Ginger discovers called The Beginner), but Wolff ’s prose is deliberately stripped of sensuousness, striking a grim, gothic tone instead. (As it happens, Ginger is a fan of Poe and Frankenstein.) The writing is engaging, simple and sometimes pleasantly cryptic; Wolff beautifully inhabits Ginger’s emotional transformations when she eavesdrops on the Motherwells having sex, or when her friendship with Cherry begins to fray. But the elegant, gauzy 272
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prose doesn’t entirely compensate for the novel’s weak plot turns. Ginger’s growing obsession with the Motherwells, to the point that she spends nights in their home, strains credibility both because of the age differential and Raquel’s pomposity— when she’s not outright condescending toward Ginger, she’s spouting pedantically about parents, sex and Wick’s witchy past. Theo, meanwhile, is so underdrawn as to be a cipher, existing largely as a symbol of sexual possibility. Those unrealistic characterizations feel intentional on Wolff ’s part, not signs of first-novel clumsiness. But they do make Ginger’s character less compelling—so that, by the end, when the airiness of the prose must be set aside and Ginger is forced to make some difficult decisions, the drama feels muted and anticlimactic. Admirable for its tone and insight into the teenage mind, but with a few mechanical difficulties.
m ys t e r y BINGO BARGE MURDER
Chandler, Jessie Midnight Ink/Llewellyn (240 pp.) $14.95 paperback original | May 8, 2011 978-0-7387-2596-3 A gay Minneapolis coffee-shop owner’s loyalty to an old friend turns her into a reluctant sleuth. When his boss, Kinky Anderson, is found dead on his sleazy bingo barge, Shay O’Hanlon’s lifelong friend Coop thinks that his recent firing has made him a top suspect. So Shay and her landlady and mother figure, Eddy Quartermaine, agree to hide Coop in a secret room over the garage of the building in which Shay’s store, The Rabbit Hole, and her apartment are located. While Shay’s partner Kate holds things together at The Rabbit Hole, Shay and Coop start their sleuthing by breaking into the barge in search of clues. They find some tapes that show the killer but barely escape with their lives when two bumbling but still dangerous mobsters arrive on the scene. The mobsters kidnap Eddy and demand that the pair return the tape and a missing truckload of nuts. Shay finds it hard to lie to attractive detective JT Bordeaux, who was a regular at the Rabbit Hole before her transfer. But she and Coop continue their breaking and entering, extending their turf to a junkyard from which they rescue a starving dog who seems delighted to go with them. Madcap dangers continue until they can find a way to prove Coop innocent. A mildly amusing debut, with the attractive lesbian sleuth yet another Stephanie Plum wannabe.
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A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT
Dams, Jeanne M. Severn House (192 pp.) $27.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6983-8
A country-house weekend provides the perfect setting for an Agatha Christie homage. Retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbit and his American wife Dorothy Martin have been invited to Branston Abbey for a bang-up Guy Fawkes celebration by their expat friends Lynn and Tom Anderson. The Abbey has been lovingly restored by the Andersons’ acquaintances Joyce and Jim Moynihan. Fellow house guests include the former owner of Branston, Laurence Upshawe; famous photographer Ed Walinski; ballet dancer Michael Leonev; and Joyce’s often inebriated sister and brother-in-law, Julie and Dave Harrison. They’re joined for dinner, cooked and served by the talented Mr. and Mrs. Bates, by stunning solicitor Pat Heseltine and Paul Leatherbury, the local vicar. All is well, except for the drunken relatives, until a storm severely damages the house and grounds. In the light of day, Dorothy discovers a skeleton entwined in an uprooted oak. With no electricity or phone service and the house cut off by flood waters, Dorothy feels as if she’s stepped into “Ten Little Indians,” especially when Upshawe is found unconscious; Dave Harrison goes missing; and a mummified body turns up in what was perhaps a priest’s hole. It takes fortitude just to manage without the trappings of modern life, but Dorothy and Alan still can’t resist sleuthing while they await the police. As in so many classic English mysteries, the answer may be found in the past. Dams (Winter of Discontent, 2004, etc.) provides several pleasing twists along with an easily spotted killer.
LAST TO FOLD
Duffy, David Dunne/St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $24.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-312-62190-2 The ups and downs of an ex–Russian spy in a first novel that also has its ups and downs. For 40 hard years, boy to man, Turbo Vlost served Soviet intelligence in one clandestine capacity or another until he was offered—and gratefully accepted— early retirement. That was in 1993. Now, in his mid-50s, the Russian in him is confined to such carry-overs as a leaning toward vodka (his booze of choice). This ex–KGB colonel now resides in the City That Never Sleeps, energetic, entrepreneurial, a quintessential New Yorker. He calls his thriving one-man company Vlost and Found and, awful pun aside, it’s descriptive enough. “I get paid to find things,’” he tells a prospective client. “Sometimes people. Sometimes valuables. Sometimes |
information.” In the case of financier Rory Mulholland, it’s Eva, a l9-year-old stepdaughter who’s gone missing. Moments after learning that, however, Turbo is hauled back to a time and place he’d begun to believe was safely on the other side of the looking glass. Unexpectedly, he finds himself confronting his own unsettling history. And a scary, unwelcome history it is. Eva, it turns out, is the daughter of Turbo’s ex-wife, a woman as notoriously venomous as she is obsessively vindictive. The fact that her hatred of Turbo is unjustified matters little to Polina, who long ago might have settled Turbo’s hash if only she’d known where he was. But now, suddenly, a lot of Turbo-haters know where he is—a motley collection of former colleagues: world-class grudge-holders skilled at rendering maximum personal discomfort as the need arises, all intent on making the point that nobody, ever, takes early retirement from the KGB. Despite occasional rewards, this is mostly cookie-cutter spy lit, but if Duffy ever gets around to making a real person out of his Americanized Russian, he could have something special.
THE HANGING WOOD
Edwards, Martin Poisoned Pen (274 pp.) $24.95 | Lg. Prt.: $22.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-59058-852-9 Lg. Prt. 978-1-59058-853-6 Hannah Scarlett’s Cold Case Review Team has exactly one week to solve a 20-year-old mystery. For someone who wants justice for her long-vanished brother Callum, Orla Payne is distressingly inefficient. In her first phone call to the Cumbria Constabulary, her hysterical tone alienates DCI Hannah Scarlett (The Serpent Pool, 2010, etc.); she hangs up on her second call in fury when she doesn’t reach Hannah; and shortly after, she’s found smothered to death in a grain silo on her father’s farm. Although the forensic evidence points to suicide, Mike Hinds, baffled and furious, can’t imagine why his daughter came home to top herself. Her suicide seems especially puzzling since she’d recently waxed so frantic about the fate of her brother, long assumed to have been murdered by Mike’s brother Philip, who ended the earlier investigation by killing himself. So Hannah, briskly putting off Marc Amos, the ex-lover who’d like to patch up their differences, wangles a week from her imperious boss, the aptly named ACC Lauren Self, to investigate. The histories of the leading families involved—the parvenu Madsens, whose holdings include a local park for recreational vehicles; the Hopes clan, impoverished gentry who’ve kept themselves afloat by marrying into the Madsens and annexing their estate, Mockbeggar Hall, to the RV park; and the blighted Hinds family—are so rich in suspicious behavior and dark secrets that a week scarcely seems enough. Will Hannah and historian Daniel Kind, the friend who doesn’t seem to notice that he’s supposed to take Marc’s place, beat the deadline? Reliable Lake District family intrigue from a seasoned pro.
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KNOCKDOWN
Graves, Sarah Bantam (288 pp.) $25.00 | e-book: $25.00 | April 26, 2011 978-0-553-80789-9 e-book 978-0-440-42312-6 It’s hard to enjoy the Fourth of July celebrations in your lovely Maine community when you’re the target of a psychopath bent on making you pay for your past misdeeds. Happily remarried, Jacobia Tiptree spends her time working on her huge old house. The house isn’t haunted, but her past is. Back when Jake was married to a wealthy, unfaithful New York brain surgeon, she managed money for some unsavory people. After she refused a loan to an addicted gambler on the fringes of the mob and he was unable to pay, he vanished. Now his son wants revenge. Jake takes the threatening notes in stride; it’s not until people start dying that she and her family and friends really take notice. Her son, who’s cleaned up his act and moved back in with her, becomes part of the team searching for the putative killer. The town is so densely packed with holiday visitors that it’s hard to find a young man who wants to stay hidden and whose only noticeable feature is protruding ears. Jake is forced to play cat and mouse with a killer whose mental state continues to deteriorate. Although the cozy, down-home Maine feeling is there, the breathless ending can’t make up for the lack of suspense fans expect from the best of Graves’ Home Repair series (Crawlspace, 2009, etc.). (Agent: Christine Hogrebe/Jane Rotrosen Literary Agency)
DEATH ON TOUR
Hamrick, Janice Minotaur Books (304 pp.) $24.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-312-67946-0 A high-school teacher’s dream vacation becomes an unexpected mystery tour. Jocelyn Shore and her cousin Kyla, who are often mistaken for sisters—a fact that annoys the stylish Kyla—are on a guided tour of Egypt with the usual mixed bag of travelers, ranging from the handsome Alan Stratton to the annoying Millie Owens. When Millie’s found dead at the base of a pyramid, no one is exactly devastated, but her death turns out to be only the first in a series of mysterious and violent occurrences. Jocelyn becomes suspicious when the ubiquitous sellers of everything from fine carpets to tourist trinkets keep asking her if she is from Utah. Still, their WorldPal tour guide Anni is very knowledgeable and does a great job explaining the historic sites of Egypt and keeping her charges in line, even the two elderly sisters everyone thinks should have stayed home. Even when the cousins clash over Alan, whom they both find attractive, they enjoy the tour well 274
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enough to write off the odd incidents until Jocelyn is attacked in a darkened tomb and a merchant is found murdered in the same way as Millie. Jocelyn has all too little time to figure out why she is marked for trouble and which of her fellow travelers may be the troublemaker. Hamrick’s character-driven debut is a good mystery and a charming travelogue.
SLUGFEST
Harris, Rosemary Minotaur Books (256 pp.) $24.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-312-56996-9 The owner of a Connecticut nursery finds mayhem in the marigolds when she attends New York’s premier flower show. Paula Holliday (Dead Head, 2010, etc.) left the Big Apple when life as a TV producer got too hectic. Now she’s back selling her friend Primo Dunstan’s eccentric trash sculptures at the Big Apple Flower Show. Of course purists like Allegra Douglas think vendors have no place in the horticultural showcase, but its ambitious director Kristi Reynolds who wants her event to rival Philadelphia’s legendary flower show. So Paula ends up with a badge that satisfies even a martinet like security guard Rolanda Knox, and in she goes, taking with her the backpack of struggling student Garland Bleimeister, whose credentials don’t meet Knox’s strict standards. Paula doesn’t foresee the endless catastrophes that infest the Big Apple show like aphids. First someone knocks off Connie Anzalone’s prized veronicas. Then somebody knocks off custodian Otis Randolph. Now Paula begins to feel queasy about what’s in the bag, neatly stowed underneath a table full of Primo’s artwork. When Garland himself is killed, the police fixate on Jamal Harrington, one of the inner-city kids’ middle-school teachers Lauryn Peete has encouraged to enter the show. But Paula thinks that whoever dropped a bag of cosmetics in the ladies’ room after telling off her male companion is somehow involved. Should she share her suspicions with police detective John Stancik? Or, cute as Stancik is, should she pursue her hunch on her own? Daisies won’t tell, but Harris does in her hilarious look at gardeners gone wild. (Author tour to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Northern California, Connecticut, Albany, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Massachussetts)
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“Only a die-hard misanthrope would disdain a chance to spend time with Slider and his wife and son.” from body line
BODY LINE
Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6957-9 Who killed the ladykiller? David Rogers never met a gal he didn’t want to chat up. He was a consultant, he told them, but was vague about which hospital he was affiliated with. He bought them fabulous trinkets, always paid for in cash, and assured each of them that marriage was a certainty. After all, he loved them, didn’t he? Well, not really. The lothario kept a string of lovelies hoping, so it’s unlikely that one of them shot him dead. It’s up to Bill Slider, of Shepherd’s Bush CID, to discover Rogers’ nemesis and in the process learn about an ex-wife and former best friend, both of whom lie about their recent contact with Rogers and decline to gossip about a long-ago accusation of patient diddling that forced Rogers from a lucrative practice. More enquiries turn up a current wife sworn to secrecy about their relationship as well as Rogers’ passion for weekly night-fishing in a power boat worthy of a billionaire. In order to keep secret what elapsed during those excursions, more must die before medical malfeasance reaching as far as Holland and China is brought to a stop. Nobody cozies up to domesticity better than Harrod-Eagles (Fell Purpose, 2010, etc.). Only a die-hard misanthrope would disdain a chance to spend time with Slider and his wife and son.
FALSE MONEY
Heley, Veronica Severn House (240 pp.) $28.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6985-2 Domestic agency owner Bea Abbott (False Pretences, 2010, etc.) goes to bat for one of her unofficial offspring while her real son and daughter-in-law do their best to keep her from her grandson. Between visiting his home district and fretting over his overwrought wife Nicole, MP Max Abbot has little time to care for his colicky new son Pippin. Max’s mother Bea is sure that all Pippin needs is a change in formula, but even the mildest correction to Nicole’s parenting is met with hysteria. It’s no wonder Bea prefers her makeshift brood: hyperkinetic Maggie, who fearlessly bosses around contractors on behalf of the Abbot Agency; brainy Oliver, whose success at Cambridge helps counterbalance a legacy of rejection by his parents; and charming Chris, flush with the success of his first film venture. Bea knows that Chris is an operator, but she can’t ignore his pleas to help find his Nigerian friend Tomilola, ostensibly because she’s disappeared with his library books. As attempts to find Tomi dead-end, Chris grows genuinely alarmed. After Tomi’s |
body turns up in a field off Fulmer Lane, her sometime boyfriend Harry and Harry’s friends Jamie and Hermia help Chris and Bea retrace the beautiful Nigerian’s last days. Meanwhile, Max and Nicole bar Bea from their home, hiring a nanny to care for Pippin. But as her pursuit of Tomi’s killer intensifies, Bea starts to fear that their choice of caregivers may put her beloved grandson in danger. Fans will be treated to the usual family complications as they wait for the inevitable shoe to drop.
AMONG THE MISSING
Joss, Morag Delacorte (272 pp.) $25.00 | e-book: $25.00 | June 21, 2011 978-0-385-34274-2 e-book 978-0-440-42346-1 The harrowing collapse of a Scottish bridge links three lost souls as they lurch toward an even more horrifying finale. Ron, Annabel and Silva are all in their different ways among the missing. Ron, who’s just completed a prison term for inadvertently causing the disastrous bus accident that killed a pregnant teacher and six schoolchildren, is working a job for which he has no credentials. Annabel ran away from her 50-year-old bridegroom Colin after he refused to accept any responsibility for the baby she was carrying. Silva has always felt that she was merely the substitute for the baby of her mother’s friend, who died while Silva’s mother was pregnant. Now, in the aftermath of the catastrophic wreck of the bridge near Netherloch that brought them together to make an ad hoc household in an out-of-the-way trailer, each of them is keeping a secret. Ron, of course, tells no one about his sorry recent past. Annabel doesn’t give her real name (it’s not Annabel) when she approaches Silva looking for companionship. Nor does she tell her that, desperate for money, she’d illegally sold her rental car to Silva’s husband Stefan for £3000 just before he and his daughter Anna set out across the bridge. And Silva doesn’t even admit to herself what’s clear to the other two: that her husband and child were among the victims. As spring turns to summer and then fall, repair work proceeds on the bridge as Annabel’s baby grows within her. It’s only a matter of time, however, before the secrets are revealed in a way that guarantees pity and terror. Joss (The Night Following, 2008, etc.) builds the relationships among her sad trio slowly, through excruciatingly subtle modulations of tone. But the ending fully justifies every intimation of imminent doom. (Agent: Jean Naggar/Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency)
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THE SLOTH’S EYE
Lombardi, Linda Five Star (292 pp.) $25.95 | April 15, 2011 978-1-59414-962-7
A zoo is attacked by a human predator. Halloween is meant to be a fun time at the zoo. The keepers dress in costumes, there’s candy aplenty and the elephants are trained to stomp on pumpkins. This year turns out differently, though, when one of the elephants stomps on a pumpkin that is stuffed with a human head, unfortunately still attached to a human body. Zookeeper Hannah Lily is justifiably horrified at this incident, especially when the decedent is discovered to be Victor, the zoo’s beloved public-relations director. Though Hannah thinks zoo director Allison, Victor’s last girlfriend, will be upset about Victor’s death, Allison seems more concerned about the media response than anything else. Hannah can’t be that mad at Allison, since the new director has promised Hannah a wombat for the small-mammal exhibit. Hannah thinks this might make her boss, Chris, a little happier with Allison. He’s always seemed to hold a grudge against her, and Hannah would do almost anything to make him happy. In fact, Hannah’s becoming more aware of how much room she’d like to make in her life for Chris, who makes her insides feel like armadillo gruel. But these romantic reveries are put on hold when one of the sloths in the exhibit goes missing. Clearly, what’s been happening at the zoo is an inside job, and Hannah must do whatever it takes to keep the animals, and herself, safe. Lombardi’s debut is predictable and formulaic, but the result is far more amusing than you’d expect.
OCTOBER FEST
Lourey, Jess Midnight Ink/Llewellyn (240 pp.) $14.95 | May 8, 2011 978-0-7387-2623-6 Marriage in the ninth decade. Mrs. Berns, irascible 86 -year-old resident of the Senior Sunset home, has decided she will marry Bernard Mink, a nogoodnik with a record for assault and a vocabulary rivaling Mrs. Malaprop’s, in order to stymie her son from resettling her in a maximumsecurity nursing home. The problem is that Bernard may he a murder suspect in the death of political blogger Bob Webber, who either gassed himself or was asphyxiated in a bedroom at the Big Chief Motor Lodge. Mrs. Berns, laid up in a hospital bed with broken ribs, contusions and a bent leg from a suspicious car accident, asks her best friend Mira James, part-time librarian/part-time reporter for the Battle Lake, Minn., Gazette (September Fair, 2009, etc.), to prove Bernard innocent so that her wedding can go on as planned. Mira’s snooping wends past two candidates vying for office, a boring do-gooder and a caustic 276
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opportunist, and turns up marital infidelity, a wacky daughter devoted to a gerbil, and many opportunities for Mira to fall off the wagon, which she resists with slightly less enthusiasm than the messages beaming from the big blue eyes of her sometime boyfriend Johnny. When the opportunistic candidate is shot, Mira must corral the killer by executing a sting with the help of her ex, Brad, in time for Mrs. Berns’ beautifully staged nonwedding at the church. The murders aren’t very interesting, and the plotting selfdestructs at the end, but along the way, the story is funny, ribald and brimming with small-town eccentrics.
STICKY FINGERS
Martin, Nancy Minotaur Books (304 pp.) $24.99 | March 29, 2011 978-0-312-57373-7 An architectural salvager discovers that the real trash can be found among Pittsburgh’s intellectual elite. When times are tough in the salvage business, Roxy Abruzzo (Our Lady of Immaculate Deception, 2010, etc.) isn’t above taking on odd jobs for her mobbed-up uncle Carmine. But there are some jobs that are just too odd for Roxy, and kidnapping her old schoolmate Clarice Crabtree is one of them. Not that Clarice wasn’t a pain even in high school, where she rubbed Roxy’s nose in her working-class roots. But now that she’s a museum curator who specializes in megafauna, Clarice is an insufferable snob who brushes off Roxy’s attempts to warn her about the kidnap threat. When a rug containing Clarice’s corpse turns up in an abandoned field, Roxy sheds no tears. But her old friend Bug Duffy, now a police detective, thinks Roxy knows more than she’s telling. Besides, Roxy has promised herself to be a better role model for her teenaged daughter Sage. So she bundles her cousin Nooch and her mutt Rooney into her truck to check out Clarice’s digs, where she finds two grieving widowers: the sire to Richie, Clarice’s budding fashion-designer son, and the adopted father of her China-born daughter, Olympic skating hopeful Sugar. Now Clarice has to evade Bug’s sharp questions—as well as some softer advances from Sage’s father Flynn, her old flame—while figuring out who had it in for a multiply-married lady. Guaranteed to delight tough girls and tough-girl fans everywhere.
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“Struggling to make ends meet while dealing with a complicated love life? The worst is yet to come.” from make, take, murder
DEVIL’S PLAYTHING
Richtel, Matt Poisoned Pen (342 pp.) $24.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-59058-887-1
Great news! Your grandmother doesn’t have Alzheimer’s; her memory is being killed off by a nefarious computer program. Between posting medical blogs at $60 a pop and coupling with his boss, editor Pauline Sanchez, in her office, San Francisco journalist Nat Idle is one busy guy. So he doesn’t have much time to spend visiting his grandmother over at Magnolia Manor. If he did, maybe he’d notice that she’s spending quite a bit of time online answering questions for the Human Memory Crusade while she still has memories to record. Every day, a computerized voice asks Elana Liza (Lane) Idle, 85, about her early life. Neither Lane nor Nat observes two baneful effects of the probing questions: She’s sharing an awful lot of personal information with a disembodied voice that assures her she can trust the Crusade to keep her private information private till after she’s dead; and her memory loss is accelerating dramatically. Nat’s previous work history (Hooked, 2007) should certainly make him suspicious. But not until he and his mother, out for a walk during one of his infrequent visits, are shot at by someone who escapes in a Prius does he realize that she’s in danger and that the mysteriously encrypted flash drive he’s received from a computer researcher who insists on meeting with him and then doesn’t show up for the rendezvous has something to do with it. The manic cloak-and-dagger business is no more convincing than the is-he-or-isn’t-he suspects who seem to be dogging Nat’s every move. But the relationship between him and his spunky, fading grandmother rings true.
MAKE, TAKE, MURDER
Slan, Joanna Campbell Midnight Ink/Llewellyn (360 pp.) $14.95 | May 8, 2011 978-0-7387-2066-1 Struggling to make ends meet while dealing with a complicated love life? The worst is yet to come. Her search for a missing paycheck takes Kiki Lowenstein into the dumpster behind Time in a Bottle, the beloved scrapbook store in which she’s acquired part ownership. Instead she finds a human leg. Since her husband was murdered, Kiki is used to threatening messages, but her anal-retentive coowner Bama faints when the detectives show them a threatening note also retrieved from the dumpster. Bama has secrets of her own, which make her abusive husband beat her to a pulp and almost kill Kiki before the police arrive. And it’s not as if Kiki doesn’t have problems of her own. The man she loves is |
already married; her teen daughter has become awfully independent; and with Hanukkah and Christmas fast approaching, she has so little money that she’s forced to wear a jacket smelling of cat pee to survive the cold St. Louis winter. By contrast, her customer Cindy Gambrowski seemed to have it all, at least until Kiki found her leg. Investigation reveals that she was battered by her controlling husband, who’s high on the list of suspects. But Cindy’s hidden clues in her scrapbooks, and it’s up to Kiki to find them before she becomes the next victim. Kiki’s adventures (Photo, Snap, Shot, 2010, etc.) are a cut above the usual crafting cozies. If the mystery is pedestrian, the characters are so well-developed that each installment leaves the reader yearning for the next.
science fiction and fantasy TIASSA
Brust, Steven Tor (304 pp.) $24.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7653-1209-9 Another outing for Vlad Taltos (Jhegaala, 2008, etc.) set in Brust’s now-familiar world where humans are a despised minority, the rest being elf-like nearimmortals who really talk and act as though they had thousands of years at their disposal. The mysterious Blue Fox, a self-styled highwayman, approaches former assassin, current brothel-keeper and first-person narrator Vlad—Vlad has a small dragon-like jhereg with whom he shares a telepathic bond—to steal the silver MacGuffin of the title as a means to circumvent the system of money-marking recently instituted by the Empire. Vlad knows it’s a scam but plays along, wondering who’s really scamming who, and why. Thereafter, the narrative turns omniscient, as the Countess of Whitecrest finds a need to locate the tiassa so as to defend the Empire against an anticipated attack by deadly entities known as the Jenoine. Another scam, possibly, but again, who and why? In the third episode Khaavren, the countess’s husband and captain of the Phoenix Guard, comes upon a severely wounded Vlad: he’s been set upon by at least nine assailants and again, possibly, the tiassa may be the prime mover. The chief pleasures of reading Brust are the improbably well-mannered, patient, self-possessed, competent, armed-to-the-teeth characters, the edgy, ironic narrative voice and a precisely rendered world that often seems uninhabited except for the folks Brust chooses to introduce us to.
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Enjoy the limpid, exquisite writing, even when, as here, nothing much actually happens.
ALL THE LIVES HE LED
Pohl, Frederik Tor (268 pp.) $25.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2176-3
In sci-fi grandmaster Pohl’s latest venture (The Last Theorem, 2008, etc.), terrorists threaten the bimillennial celebration of Pompeii’s destruction by Vesuvius. In 2079, America has been all but destroyed by the explosion of a Yellowstone super-volcano, and publicity-thirsty terrorists ranging from the mildly annoyed to the incandescently furious find it surpassingly easy to engineer mass murders. As the world prepares to commemorate Pompeii’s sad passing, indentured American laborer Brad Sheridan finds himself slaving in a wine shop, wearing authentic costume and eating authentic Roman food, serving chemically concocted wine to the throngs of tourists enjoying the ambience of a virtually reconstructed Pompeii. So good is “virt” technology that it’s not easy to distinguish real near-slaves like Brad from the virtual ancient Romans. An annoyingly dimwitted narrator, Brad remains oblivious to significant and possibly sinister undercurrents: the ominous spread of a necrotic plague known as Pompeii Flu; the reason his friend, well-to-do hydrology engineer Maury Tesch, asks—insists—that Brad conceal Maury’s mysterious sausage in Brad’s refrigerator; the persistent attentions of a security operative, Piranha Woman; even the way his girlfriend, attractive volunteer Gerda Fleming, finds excuses to disappear out of town for extended periods. Will Brad ever catch on to the fact that something big and nasty is brewing? Pohl brings genuine expertise to his sketches of ancient Rome, and few can match the sheer warmth of his technique. In the later stages, though, the plot runs away, leaving most of the characters behind. Always a pleasure to welcome a new Pohl, even when, as here, he’s transmitting a decidedly ambiguous message.
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nonfiction THE PRESIDENT IS A SICK MAN Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth
Algeo, Matthew Chicago Review (272 pp.) $24.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-56976-350-6
A micro-history of a White House coverup, a journalist’s reputation defiled and the eventual emergence of the truth. NPR reporter Algeo (Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip, 2009, etc.) examines a slice of American history from 1893, when President Grover Cleveland disappeared from public view for about a week around the Independence Day holiday. With the nation suffering an economic depression, Cleveland and his advisors did not want to heighten the panic with the truth: The president had been diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. The president arranged for the tumor to be surgically removed by a team of physicians aboard the yacht of a friend. Cleveland’s wife Frances and his press aide lied to journalists and anybody else who asked about what was occurring on the yacht. Journalists accepted the lies, and the general public believed Cleveland had undergone nothing more than uncomfortable dental work. The truth did not begin to emerge until late August, after accomplished journalist E.J. Edwards broke the story in a Philadelphia newspaper. Despite Edwards’ longtime reputation as a fair and accurate reporter, other journalists, government officials and general readers believed he had concocted the account. Edwards would not receive total vindication until 1917, when one of the surgeons who assisted in the operation on the yacht published an account in the Saturday Evening Post. Algeo is a determined researcher and fine stylist, and the story of presidential illness serves as an effective connecting thread through a somewhat broader account of the United States during the hard economic times of the 1890s. A memorable lesson in how journalists can dig out the truths beneath official lies. (Agent: Jane Dystel/Dystel & Goderich)
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EARTH The Operators’ Manual
Alley, Richard Norton (416 pp.) $27.95 | April 18, 2011 978-0-393-08109-1
Alley (Geology/Penn State Univ.) brings the history of energy to light in this companion volume to a forthcoming PBS twopart special. The author has a noble agenda—the deployment of good science as it pertains to human-caused and natural climate change—and it’s bracing when he freely admits that his expertise (“a geologist-turned-glaciologist-and-climatologist”) has been the happy beneficiary of oil-company largesse. True to its origins as a TV investigatory series, Alley presents the big picture, but with lots of detail. His voice is avuncular and learned; the pace is leisurely, but each chapter’s short segments are punchy with well-researched information. He follows the scientists at work—“after admiring a new idea for a few seconds, a scientist’s job is to test it, to see if it is consistent with the basic laws of science and if it makes successful predictions not yet conducted”—and in that service he explores climate modeling; tracks historical climate change through sedimentary evidence, drifting continents and planetary orbit; and examines sun-spot cycles and temperature fluctuations. A firm believer in the greenhouse effect, he encourages us not to delay in activating energy alternatives, whether they are economic incentives to cut carbondioxide emissions or the panoply of offerings that include, sun, wind, plant, wave, geothermal, tide and hydroelectric. Today’s technology makes these feasible, though their application will take time, so invest in them now, as a few generations down the road they will be crucial. An engaging, energetic study of humans and how we use energy—and should use it in the future. Stay tuned for the PBS special. (8 pages of color and 50 black-and-white illustrations. Official companion to PBS series)
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“New York Times columnist Barry delivers an all-angle take on the longest, and surely the strangest, game in baseball history...Destined to take its place among the classics of baseball literature.” from bottom of the the 33rd
MILE MARKERS The 26.2 Most Important Reasons Why Women Run
Armstrong, Kristin Rodale $17.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-60961-106-4
Runner’s World blogger Armstrong (Happily Ever After: Walking with Peace and Courage Through a Year of Divorce, 2008, etc.) neatly packages a marathon of observations on running and womanhood into 26.2 chapters. Although the miles of the book (as the author refers to its chapters) often begin at a distance from the author, Armstrong’s steadily paced prose soon takes on a more candid tone. Each chapter is filled with fragments on a theme, which often seem like disparate thoughts struggling to mesh together. The author’s repeated references to personal achievements and the inclusion of an unwieldy circle of friends, whom the reader must also befriend, may strike readers as off-putting at times—as will the constant self-promotion of her popular blog. The muscle pain and endorphin rush she describes at length may be alien to non-runners, but her renderings of the physicality of running will have readers’ muscles burning with empathy. Armstrong’s anecdotes are clever and amusing, likely to elicit an outright chuckle or two. Particularly resonant is a passage on how runners distinguish themselves from the pack with the messages they wear on their sleeves, ranging from political (“Free Tibet”) to personal (“In honor of my dad”). The witty tone and urgency of the prose, the immediacy of the scenes she evokes and the ironic one-liners (“My mother hates to sweat”) will have even non-runners stretching their reading muscles. Part stream-of-consciousness, part self-help, but ultimately heartfelt—a compelling collection of essays, even for non-runners.
BOTTOM OF THE 33RD Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game
Barry, Dan Harper/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $26.99 | Lg. Prt.: $26.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-06-201448-1 Lg. Prt. 978-0-06-206503-2 New York Times columnist Barry (City Lights: Stories About New York, 2007, etc.) delivers an all-angle take on the longest, and surely the strangest, game in baseball history. On a frigid evening in April 1981, 1,740 Pawtucket, R.I., Red Sox fans settled into their seats for a game with the Rochester Red Wings of the AAA International League. With the score tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, the teams played on. And on. On past 12:50 a.m., when the curfew provision, mysteriously missing from that year’s edition of the rule book, would have suspended the contest; on past the 21st inning, when each team maddeningly 280
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scored a run; on past the 29th and record-tying inning; on past 4:00 a.m., the bottom of the 32nd, when the league president was finally reached and ordered the umpires to suspend the contest. Wittily and gracefully, Barry works out his Easter themes of hope and redemption, providing, of course, an account of the game, but most memorably capturing the atmosphere of the city and the stories of the people who shared this weird moment in baseball’s long history: the players, two headed for the Hall of Fame, a few who would establish substantial major league careers, scrubs who would never make it, others only on their way to or back from the proverbial cup of coffee in the bigs; the dutiful umpires and the team managers, baseball lifers both; the hardy doublehandful of fans who stayed the course, including a father and son bound by their promise never to leave a game; the clubhouse attendants, batboys and devoted player wives; the makeshift radio broadcasters and jaded newsmen sentenced to cover the game; the millionaire, blue-collar PawSox owner and the dismal team and decrepit stadium he inherited; the burned-out but stilldefiant city of Pawtucket, where baseball would, indeed, eventually rise from the dead. When play resumed two months later, the entire baseball world descended upon the stadium, eager to participate in the historic game’s conclusion, prefiguring the enthusiastic attention Barry’s wonderful story richly inspires. Destined to take its place among the classics of baseball literature. (8 black-and-white photographs. Author appearances in Boston, New Jersey, New York, Providence)
DOCTORS ARE MORE HARMFUL THAN GERMS How Surgery Can Be Hazardous to Your Health — And What to Do About It
Bigelsen, Harvey and Lisa Haller North Atlantic (240 pp.) $16.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-55643-958-2
Frank, cautionary message about the possible dangers of invasive medicine. Bigelsen, a 30-year veteran of the medical industry and cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association, sounds the alarm on the overwrought state of modern medicine. He argues that surgery often does more harm than good and few patients escape without lasting trauma, warning against trends like “one-stop surgery,” where doctors take care of many maladies with one procedure. The author rails against an overdependence on damaging antibiotics as a catch-all in treating the symptoms rather than eliminating the root cause of an ailment. Using statistics, charts and illustrations, Bigelsen justifies theories on disease transitions, the correlations between medicine and emotion and the perils of questionable preventative surgery, scar tissue and invasive dental procedures. The doctor advocates for more holistic and alternative approaches rather than traditional methods; he urges readers to trust their own bodies and their intrinsic intelligence rather than the opinions of medical doctors, who may or may not have the best intentions. Though some sections center
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on repetitive, arbitrary notions, the author elaborates with reallife medical cases and cites a number of media references and varying opinions from the medical and naturalist communities to substantiate his claims. Thankfully, his frequently pejorative thesis on 21st-century health care is combined with sensible advice stressing the importance and widespread availability of choices (second opinions) for anyone eager to weigh their options before “blindly trusting” in a health professional. Despite slack, heavy-handed prose, Bigelsen contributes much-needed material to the ever-expanding canon of consumerfocused health literature.
THE FLOOR OF HEAVEN A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush Blum, Howard Crown (448 pp.) $26.00 | April 26, 2011 978-0-307-46172-8
An accomplished storyteller and twotime Pulitzer nominee charts the crisscrossed lives of three remarkable Klondike characters. By 1898, George Carmack, the prospector who first discovered gold at Bonanza Creek and set off the Yukon gold rush, was looking for a way to transport a quarter-million dollars’ worth of ore from his claim to the stronghold of a boat headed for Seattle; Jefferson “Soapy” Smith, the underworld king of the Skagway, Alaska, boomtown planned on stealing the treasure; Charlie Siringo, an intrepid Pinkerton detective, owed an unusual debt to Carmack and sought to repay it by helping to foil the robbery. By now, fans of Vanity Fair contributing editor Blum (American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century, 2008, etc.) are familiar with his narrative formula: Take a few colorful characters, each a book-worthy subject in his own right and build a story that culminates in their mutual encounter. If the final collision here of the three principals comes as a bit of a letdown, it’s only because following the seemingly predestined paths of each to their Skagway wharf confrontation has been so wildly compelling. A California sheepherder who always dreamed of finding gold, Carmack joined the Marines, learned the Tlingit language and ways, deserted and then returned to Alaska intent on prospecting and fulfilling his mystical destiny. The garrulous Siringo, former shopkeeper and cowboy, signed on with the Pinkertons for adventure and, mourning the death of his wife, went undercover in Juneau to solve the Treadwell mine heist. An outrageous con man, Soapy and his scamming gang had taken over and been run out of a series of Western towns before landing in Skagway. The tumult of the times tosses these three hardened men together—two fleeing warrants, all driven by private demons and outsized dreams—against the backdrop of the last great stampede for gold. Apportioning just the right attention to each of their stories, Blum weaves a truly memorable frontier tale. (8-page black-andwhite insert and 1 map. Agent: Lynn Nesbit/Janklow & Nesbit) |
CAMBODIA’S CURSE The Modern History of a Troubled Land Brinkley, Joel PublicAffairs (416 pp.) $27.99 | April 12, 2011 978-1-58648-787-4
An excellent though dispiriting account of a country whose historic poverty, exacerbated by the Vietnam War, remains remarkably unchanged. Former New York Times Pulitzer-winning journalist Brinkley (Journalism/Stanford Univ.; Defining Vision: The Battle for the Future of Television, 1997, etc.) explains that Cambodia was a backwater, powerless to prevent North Vietnamese forces from establishing bases inside its borders after 1965. America’s devastating bombing nurtured the Khmer Rouge insurgency, which took power and launched the well-known genocidal horrors after the United States withdrew in 1975. Vietnam’s 1979 invasion ended the killing, but since Vietnam was a Soviet ally, America denounced the new government. Matters changed after 1989 when the Soviet Union collapsed and Vietnamese troops withdrew, leaving an impoverished nation led by Vietnam’s Cambodian protégé, Hun Sen. America encouraged the UN in an audacious, multibillion-dollar nation-building campaign. The author cynically notes that nothing impresses Western nations than a free election. Cambodia dutifully held one in 1993, and Hun Sen won. Proclaiming success, the UN withdrew, but aid continues to pour in despite a stunning lack of progress; nearly half of Cambodia’s children are malnourished. Few deny that corruption is responsible, and Brinkley’s book is less history than an angry journalistic description of Cambodia’s kleptocratic leadership, its universally bribable officials and the donors who facilitate them. Readers will squirm as Brinkley describes a yearly pledge meeting where international donors denounce endemic corruption, and Hun Sen (still in charge) promises reform, whereupon donors pledge another year’s aid. Like a growing number of critics, Brinkley argues that raising a nation from poverty requires an effective government, democratically elected or not. Otherwise, aid is money down the toilet.
THE BOY IN THE MOON A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son Brown, Ian St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $24.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-312-67183-9
A father’s candid, heart-wrenching account of raising, loving and trying to connect with and gain insight into his
severely disabled son. A journalist for The Globe and Mail, Brown wrote a series of pieces about his son Walker for the newspaper in 2007. The
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“Buchholz projects a communicable affection for the loud business of life, of risk-taking and devoted engagement in the pursuit of happiness.” from rush
book, a multiple-award winner in Canada when it was first published in 2009, is largely based on those pieces, which in turn had their beginnings in a journal the author had kept. Brown’s son Walker was born with cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome, an extremely rare genetic disorder affecting only a few hundred children around the world. The author writes of the struggle to raise a self-destructive child who could not speak and suffered numerous physical deformities and medical problems, recounting in sometimes harsh detail the onerous daily routine of caring for the boy and the strains this put on his marriage. However, this is much more than a moving journal of life with a disabled child; it is about Brown’s quest to understand his son and his son’s condition. He seeks out and profiles other families with CFC children, interviews a genetic researcher who found mutations in three genes related to the disorder, looks for clues to CFC through an MRI of Walker’s brain and travels to France to visit L’Arche, a faith-based organization that operates communities for the developmentally disabled. Brown’s story of the frustrations of trying to do the best for his child and find a safe place for him in a world uncomfortable with people with disabilities reveals the failures of society to establish a coherent system to help the families of disabled children. After years of at-home care, the author found a satisfactory group home for Walker, now 13, where he appears to be thriving. An absorbing, revealing work of startling frankness.
RUSH Why You Need and Love the Rat Race
Buchholz, Todd G. Hudson Street/Penguin (304 pp.) $25.95 | May 5, 2011 978-1-59463-077-4 Former presidential economic advisor and hedge-fund director Buchholz (New Ideas from Dead CEOs: Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office, 2007, etc.) sings the praises of competition—in both our personal and professional lives—for leading a happier, healthier life. The author marshals evidence from a number of sources— neuroscience, psychological investigations, evolutionary theory, common sense and his own experience—to suggest that the great avenue to happiness is being in the hunt, that competition, in all its risk and intensity, is what gets the vital juices flowing. In a zesty voice, and with the occasional wiseacre comment, he presents intelligent remarks on the value of hard work. He draws important distinctions between good and bad competition (“There is a big difference between meeting healthy, productive challenges and plundering your coworker’s ego”) and between good and bad anxiety (the former being nervous energy, the latter a lifestyle without enough choices). Buchholz appreciates that the competitive marketplace is often not fair, but then neither is life—it’s a struggle in which you have to actively engage, and that engagement brings happiness in its wake. Not all readers will agree with the author that “[w]e prefer to earn more than our colleagues at 282
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work…because that is a signal that we have earned our keep,” or when he asks, “[w]hat’s the point of hailing a people as happiest if their purported happiness does not inspire them to reproduce?” Although the humor is fun and a little corny for the most part, it can also be snarky: “The contented do not grow smarter, they grow moss.” But the author saves his humanist best for last in a tribute to personal goals, fulfilling forms of competition with yourself that don’t require you to root for the defeat of others. Buchholz projects a communicable affection for the loud business of life, of risk-taking and devoted engagement in the pursuit of happiness. (Agent: Susan Ginsburg/Writers House)
THE BLIND SPOT Science and the Crisis of Uncertainty
Byers, William Princeton Univ. (224 pp.) $24.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-691-14684-3
Is the idea that anything can be determined with absolute certainty an illusion? In mathematics and science, “certainty” is often assumed to be the result of quantification or experimentation. This notion is reassuring, but it can also set a dangerous precedent for how we view and interact with the natural world. This so-called mythology of science, or misguided “culture of certainty,” hides what mathematics professor emeritus Byers (How Mathematicians Think, 2007) calls “the blind spot”—an inevitable ambiguity within all situations, from the velocity of an elementary particle to the behavior of the stock market. Even established scientific fields like evolutionary biology or quantum mechanics are inherently ambiguous, though the data and knowledge gleaned from these fields is still revolutionary. The author argues that while reconfiguring the human attitude toward embracing uncertainty may be uncomfortable, ultimately it will enable creative opportunity on a massive scale; that an acceptance of ambiguity is “the price we pay for creativity.” Byers suggests that a continuing adherence to certainties may allow the fundamental uncertainty of modern culture to manifest itself in a variety of catastrophic ways. For example, Wall Street’s faith in certain algorithmic approaches to investing makes an interesting point about how incapable of certainty such mathematics can be—as evidenced by its recent collapse. In addition, the author argues that perhaps very little of what we deduce scientifically is actually objective: Is it possible to conduct an experiment without the observer or participant affecting the outcome? If mathematicians are able to use real numbers to solve immense equations, but the answers reveal an even deeper paradox, is there such a thing as truth? Byers incorporates many brilliant thinkers and seminal scientific breakthroughs into his discussion, offering the cogent, invigorating argument that only by embracing uncertainty can we truly progress.
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A COVERT AFFAIR The Adventures of Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS Conant, Jennet Simon & Schuster (448 pp.) $28.00 | April 5, 2011 978-1-4391-6352-8
The author of three previous accounts of World War II espionage (The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington, 2008, etc.) returns with the story of the Childs and their associates during their turbulent, eventful years with the Office of Strategic Services. Although her title identifies the Childs as her focus, Conant devotes even more attention to the puzzling case of Jane Foster, friend of the Childs and fellow OSS operative later indicted as a Soviet spy. It’s hard not to notice Foster—wealthy, attractive, flighty, loquacious, and “impossible to resist.” The author is certainly interested in Paul and Julia Child—their backgrounds, protracted courtship, wartime activities, postwar lives and Julia’s emergence as a celebrity author and TV personality. But Conant continually returns to the charisma and conundrums of Foster. Was she just irresponsible? Capricious? Careless? Or was she truly ensnared in a vast web of deceit spun by the KGB? The author concludes that Foster was either strikingly dense or actually culpable—near the end she calls her a liar and a “snob to the core.” Conant begins her tale in 1955 when Paul Child, called to Washington for what he thought was a promotion in the United States Information Service, discovered, instead, that he must undergo hours of interrogation. The government was seeking out cryptoCommies—was Paul one? His wife? And what about Jane Foster? Conant then sweeps back into the chaotic days of Wild Bill Donovan and the creation of the OSS, its recruitment of the principals, their activities during the war and their subsequent lives, loves and enterprises. Conant reveals both indignity at the excesses of McCarthyism and disgust with those who committed betrayal. Thoroughly researched, fluid and compelling. (Author tour to Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia. Agent: Kris Dahl/ICM)
THE ECONOMICS OF ENOUGH How to Run the Economy as If the Future Matters
Coyle, Diane Princeton Univ. (336 pp.) $24.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-691-14518-1
A grim view of the economic future and suggestions on how to sway the outcome, one penny at a time. In this highly informed analysis, British economist Coyle (The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters, 2007, etc.) posits as a given that “more money makes people happier because it means they can buy more.” For readers who |
agree, it follows that national economies must continue to grow to avoid collective misery or worse. But how, the author asks, can they grow while dealing responsibly with future generations when they have already become fiscally, environmentally and socially unsustainable? No clear answers emerge here, and Coyle states frankly that outcomes are difficult to predict. What is clear, she suggests, is the inevitable breakdown of trust essential for national and global economies to run smoothly and growing inequities that violate even rudimentary concepts of fairness. Add to this an abiding loss of faith in institutions that don’t seem up to the challenge and the devastating trend of borrowing for social programs that is creating insurmountable future debt. Even with adjustments, what lies ahead is more work, less play and fewer holidays; reduced pensions and public services; and the necessity of more personal saving and less consumption. Coyle calls for steps including new and better economic measurements, a longer time frame for economic decision-making that takes into account future costs and impacts and government policies which enforce personal saving and business investment. There’s much to digest here, so the author’s tendency to repeat herself turns out to be helpful. Tough trekking but well worth the journey for this top-rank economist’s view from the summit.
OUT OF CHARACTER Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking In All of Us
DeSteno, David and Piercarlo Valdesolo Crown Archetype (272 pp.) $25.00 | May 3, 2011 978-0-307-71775-7
Psychologists DeSteno (Psychology/ Northeastern Univ.) and Valdesolo (Psychology/Amherst Coll.) offer a new twist to the dispute between absolute and relative moral values. The authors use the metaphor of the ant and the grasshopper—taken from an Aesop fable—to describe two contradictory aspects of human behavior which are triggered by different neurological systems in the brain. “The ant is always looking to the future,” they write. “The grasshopper, on the other hand, sees no point in worrying about the future until it gets here, so it spends its time singing, playing, and enjoying itself.” The ant represents our ability to exercise self-control, to reason and plan ahead; the grasshopper represents the urge for immediate gratification and our dependence on intuitive, gut reactions. Counterintuitively, the authors suggest that the peccadilloes of public figures such as Eliot Spitzer and Larry Craig might exemplify cognitive flexibility rather than hypocrisy and contempt for the moral values they publicly espoused—a mental shift to suit other imperatives. The more primitive grasshopper system that governs our instinctive behavior harkens back to our evolutionary past, when survival depended upon a quick reaction to danger. DeSteno and Valdesolo review cutting-edge research using fMRI, neuroimaging that shows how different brain systems can be activated when
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we face moral dilemmas. In one experiment, subjects were asked how they would respond to a hypothetical situation in which an out-of-control trolley was about to run over five people. Would they stop the trolley by pushing a large man onto the tracks? Others were given the option of flipping a switch to shift the trolley to another track, where only one person would be hurt. The fMRI image showed that different areas of the brain were activated: In the first case, a gut reaction against killing had to be overcome; in the second, the brain treated it as a logical decision. A well-reasoned argument for a more nuanced view of character, and a solid addition to the ever-growing behavioral-economics shelf. (Agent: James Levine/Levine Greenberg Literary Agency)
SCIENCE FAIR SEASON Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch, and What It Takes to Win Dutton, Judy Hyperion (288 pp.) $24.99 | May 1, 2011 978-1-4013-2379-0
A heart-gladdening tale of 11 students contesting for top honors in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Intel ISEF showcases the work of 1,500 high schoolers across the globe vying for $4 million in prizes and scholarships. It is the first-stop recruiting venue for universities, research and development labs and medical programs. The quality of work is astounding; said one judge: “The level of sophistication in these projects is in many cases beyond the level of graduate school and doctoral research.” Though Dutton (How We Do It: How the Science of Sex Can Make You a Better Lover, 2009) occasionally lapses into a schmaltzy mode—“The lesson I would learn from her was that the ultimate reward for doing science fairs isn’t fame, or money, or college scholarships…It’s about connecting with the people you care most about”—there is no denying her genuine admiration and affection for the contestants. The characters include Garrett, whose project brought heat and hot water to his hardscrabble family; BB, who brought her bout with leprosy to the fore; and Eliza, the anti-nerd, a rich, beautiful model who investigated the collapse of honeybee colonies and contended with her looks as a deterrent. Dutton describes the projects with an easeful clarity, illuminating the world of “the most hardworking, humbling, and heartbreaking group of young men and women.” It’s been a while since science nerds were true outcasts, but this group shines in the best of oddball company. (Agent: Douglas Stewart/Sterling Lord Literistic)
THE BALLAD OF BOB DYLAN A Portrait Epstein, Daniel Mark Harper/HarperCollins (496 pp.) $27.99 | May 3, 2011 978-0-06-180732-9
Four concerts viewed over more than four decades frame a new study of the musician. Historian and poet Epstein (Lincoln’s Men: The President and His Private Secretaries, 2009, etc.) employs a quartet of Dylan gigs he attended—a 1963 solo acoustic date, a 1974 show with The Band, and 1997 and 2009 stops on the socalled Never Ending Tour—as pivots in his overview of the singersongwriter’s 50-year musical journey. The results are a mixed bag. The ’63 performance in Washington, D.C., coincided with Dylan’s rise to folk-music stardom, and the ’74 Madison Square Garden stand was part of a trek that returned him to the stage after an eight-year layoff, but Epstein never integrates his observations into the flow of his biographical narrative. The latter two shows were merely stops on a long road, and the author parses them indifferently. Epstein is at his best dealing with his subject’s Minnesota boyhood, embrace of folk music and meteoric early-’60s ascent; fresh recollections from Nora Guthrie, daughter of Dylan’s role model Woody Guthrie, highlight the early going. Likewise, later chapters on the making of the important albums Time Out of Mind (1997) and Love and Theft (2001) benefit from revealing interviews with session men like drummer David Kemper and the late keyboardist-raconteur Jim Dickinson. Yet Epstein fails to penetrate the artist’s multitudinous masks at other crucial junctures. He offers nothing new about Dylan’s mid-’60s rock stardom, and his crucial relationship with first wife Sara Lownds is as mysterious here as it is in other accounts. The author has no patience with Dylan’s conversion to Christianity in the late ’70s, and the music that followed receives little consideration. Epstein takes in Dylan’s creatively manic later years as a touring and recording artist, writer, painter and radio host with an obsessive’s eye, but all the detail feels unsorted and second-hand. Despite occasionally graceful writing and input from hitherto untapped expert witnesses, this is not top-shelf Dylanology. (8-page color insert. Agent: Neil Olson/Donadio & Olson)
UNDER PALLOR, UNDER SHADOW The 1920 American League Pennant Race that Rattled and Rebuilt Baseball Felber, Bill Univ. of Nebraska (256 pp.) $26.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-8032-3471-0
The executive editor of the Manhattan Mercury (Kansas) delivers a complicated but engaging account of the 1920s. 284
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“Watching the narrator evolve from a fearful, immature young woman into a take-charge traveler is a pleasure, but the author’s insights tend toward the disappointingly banal.” from the good girl’s guide to getting lost
With a story that involves Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker and gambler Arnold Rothstein, it’s hard to go wrong—and Felber (A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant, 2007, etc.) rarely does. He begins with the tragic event of Aug. 16, 1920, when Yankees’ submariner Carl Mays beaned Cleveland Indians’ star shortstop Ray Chapman, who died shortly afterward (the only game fatality to occur in Major League history). At the time, the Yankees, Indians and White Sox were engaged in a fierce pennant race, and Mays’ pitch removed from the Tribe lineup one of its most popular and productive players. Although some players around the league considered boycotting Mays’ subsequent starts—he pitched the rest of the season, steadfastly denying he’d hit Chapman intentionally—the protest fizzled while the race sizzled. Compounding the complexity here is the 1919 World Series. The White Sox had played the Reds, and more than a half-dozen Sox, Joe Jackson among them, later admitted to accepting money from gamblers to throw the Series. The investigations of this “Black Sox” scandal were just commencing as the 1920 season advanced. The Sox hated one another but still won games. Meanwhile, Babe Ruth was shattering home-run records, filling stadiums all over the league and becoming a megastar. After devoting pages to the composition of each team, Felber proceeds week by week through the season, shifting focus from one contender to the other. He ends with some accounts of the 1920 Series written by legendary sportswriters Ring Lardner and Daymon Runyon. Thoroughly researched, sensibly presented and soundly argued—a ringing triple in the gap.
FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE GREAT EASY MEALS 250 Fun & Fast Recipes
Food Network Magazine Hyperion (416 pp.) $24.99 paperback original March 15, 2011 978-1-4013-2419-3
A popular cooking channel unveils an eclectic collection of quick and simple meals. Food Network Magazine launched in 2008, offering tasty, easyto-make food, tips on entertaining and commentary from the channel’s on-air celebrity chefs. This debut volume collects the best and brightest of the magazine’s kitchen-tested, “foolproof ” recipes. Sprinkled among the uncomplicated dinner items are useful extras like the “Mix and Match” feature pairing classic dishes like macaroni and cheese, chicken soup, pizza and stir-fry dinners with enticing ingredient substitutions. For Food Network fans, six short profiles reveal the kitchen secrets of culinary personalities like Guy Fieri, Ted Allen and the Neelys. Recipe pages feature precise cooking times, serving sizes and nutrition information alongside low-calorie options and helpful hints like alternative cooking techniques, side-dish suggestions, intriguing flavor combinations (think microwave “tomato jam”) and ideas for leftovers. In “Soups and Stews,” Vietnamese Noodle, Pistou (French pesto) and Thai Corn Chowder add international flare. |
The “Poultry,” “Pasta,” and “Fish and Seafood” sections are jazzed up with recipes like “Inside Out Chicken Cordon Bleu,” “Curried Salmon Cakes” and “Skillet Lasagna,” all prepared in under an hour. A section on “10-Minute Desserts” is not as impressive, however, with most ideas feeling overly simplistic. Perhaps most unique and helpful are the thumbnail “finished-product” photographs fronting the book, providing readers a useful tool when they need to quickly plan a meal. Eye-pleasing, well-balanced compilation of accessible recipes and cooking guidelines for on-the-go home chefs.
THE GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO GETTING LOST A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure
Friedman, Rachel Bantam (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-0-385-34337-4
A memoir of two years in the life of a slightly muddled collegiate who sought clarity by traveling the world on a shoestring budget. Like so many students nearing the end of their undergraduate studies, Friedman (Literature/John Jay Coll.) had no idea of what would come next. In an attempt to resolve her confusion, she set out for Ireland the summer before her senior year. Wheeling a massively overpacked red suitcase behind her, Friedman settled into a bohemian lifestyle of waitressing, bartending, drinking and dancing in Galway and beyond. An Australian housemate named Carly became the “wise life guide” who showed Friedman the virtues of traveling—and living— without a set plan. A year later, newly graduated from college and as unwilling as ever to settle down, the author gratefully accepted an invitation from Carly to visit her in Sydney. After living, working and traveling around Australia for a few months, Friedman and the ever-restless Carly headed to South America. The two “trapezed” their way across Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, negotiating dodgy accommodations, thieves, dangerous roadways, altitude sickness and food poisoning. Along the way, Friedman discovered that “people and places and experience” were far more important than possessions and that the present moment should be celebrated. Watching the narrator evolve from a fearful, immature young woman into a take-charge traveler is a pleasure, but the author’s insights tend toward the disappointingly banal. Well-written and well-paced, but may have limited appeal. (4 black-and-white photos. Agent: Jane Dystel/Dystel & Goderich)
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THE ORIGINS OF POLITICAL ORDER From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
THE MAD BOMBER OF NEW YORK The Extraordinary True Story of the Manhunt that Paralyzed a City
Fukuyama, Francis Farrar, Straus and Giroux (688 pp.) $35.00 | April 19, 2011 978-0-374-22734-0 Sweeping, provocative big-picture study of humankind’s political impulses. Fukuyama (Falling Behind: Explaining the Development Gap Between Latin America and the United States, 2008, etc.) is best known for the post-Hegelian end-ofhistory thesis he advanced at the conclusion of the Cold War, a thesis often quoted and caricatured but not widely understood. Then as now, he defied easy categorization: Some were inclined to view him as a hard-right conservative, but Edmund Burke probably would have called him a liberal. Just so, his latest study—the first volume, he advertises, of two—describes, in the widest terms, the evolution of the political order that led to the widespread democratization of the globe at the end of the 20th century. With evolution comes the possibility of devolution, though, and Fukuyama opens with the sobering observation that even though that democratization did in fact occur, much trumpeted by neonconservatives certain that the spread of capitalism had everything to do with that victory, we’re witnessing much back-sliding: “a ‘democratic recession’ emerged in the first decade of the twenty-first century.” Given that so much of the international dealings of the United States has concerned the putative spread of democracy and nation-building, and given that the U.S. seems to be one place where this recession is in full swing—as witness the “Left-Right polarization of Congress” and the collapse of “intergenerational social mobility”— Fukuyama offers a broad thesis for what constitutes a healthy modern state. Having looked at such various and sometimes arcane matters as tribal organization on the plains of Central Asia, the Yellow Turban revolt, “the persistent pattern of oligarchic dominance” in medieval Hungary and the rise of English common law, the author isolates three qualities: a strong state, the rule of law and accountability. If all three seem to be waning in this country, then Fukuyama has even more alarming news, the denouement of which will have to await a history that has yet to come to an end, to say nothing of volume two. Endlessly interesting—reminiscent at turns of Oswald Spengler, Stanislaw Andreski and Samuel Huntington, though less pessimistic and much better written. (10 maps. Agent: Esther Newberg/ICM)
Greenburg, Michael Union Square/Sterling (256 pp.) $22.95 | April 5, 2011 978-1-4027-7434-8
Fear, the city and one angry man. Greenburg (Peaches & Daddy: A Story of the Roaring ’20s, the Birth of Tabloid Media, and the Courtship that Captured the Hearts and Imaginations of the American Public, 2008) relates the gripping and bizarre story of George Metesky, the “Mad Bomber” who, between 1940 and 1957, terrorized New York City with a series of pipe bombs placed in public restrooms, phone booths, theater seats and other public locations. Though his bombs caused no fatalities, 15 citizens sustained injuries, and Metesky’s elusion of the police engendered extreme anxiety in the populace and frustrated and humiliated the NYPD. In a clear, engaging style, Greenburg marshals the complex facts of the decades-long saga and paints a sympathetically three-dimensional portrait of Metesky, a paranoid schizophrenic with a longheld grudge against the Con Edison power company for failure to pay workman’s compensation after he sustained an injury in its employ. The manhunt would have far-reaching impact on police work, as desperate investigators turned to unconventional methods after being stymied in their pursuit; chief among these innovations was the decision to consult with prominent psychiatrist James Brussel in an attempt to infer personal details about the faceless terrorist through a sort of educated guesswork. Brussel’s contributions proved strikingly germane, and “criminal profiling” would become a key component in investigations ever after. Metesky’s legal battles after his capture would also prove influential, his tireless letter-writing campaign eventually leading to reforms in the handling of the criminally insane. A compelling account of a dangerously angry man and the investigation that helped to revolutionize modern police work.
A REFORMING PEOPLE Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England Hall, David D. Knopf (272 pp.) $29.95 | April 26, 2011 978-0-679-44117-5
Reconsideration of state- and community-building by American Puritans of the mid-1600s. Playing upon the term “reform,” Hall (Divinity/Harvard Univ.; Ways of Writing: The Practice and Politics of Text-Making in Seventeenth-Century New England, 2008 etc.) explores how the American Puritans set about a process of political and social reform that 286
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“Nothing that hasn’t been written before, but told with such bluntness and heart that you can’t help but root for Herren to stay clean.” from basketball junkie
mirrored, yet surpassed, that of their English counterparts. “Amid the tumult of English popular politics of the 1640s,” writes the author, “the colonists were enacting an ‘English Revolution’ of their own.” In an attempt to eschew the overbearing authoritarianism the colonists had left England to avoid, the Puritans created communities marked by what could be seen as a proto-democratic political ethic. However, Hall goes to some length to remind his readers that such terms as “liberal” and “authoritarian” would have been lost on the Puritans, and indeed are of little help to modern scholars in understanding the colonists’ motives and results. Not only did congregational life largely define New England statecraft, reformed theology also defined public discourse. Another theme exposed by the author is the modern-day tendency to see Puritan New England either as a vanguard of liberties or as a touchstone of theocracy. Again, Hall argues that in no case was the period that simplistic. Though the author demonstrates rigorous scholarship, the book is not accessible to general readers. Aimed at an audience already familiar with both Puritan New England and the English Civil Wars, the narrative is often opaque and dry. Reserved for the scholar’s bookshelf.
WILLFUL BLINDNESS Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril
Heffernan, Margaret Walker (304 pp.) $26.00 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8027-1998-0
Former CEO turned blogger explores the reasons why we don’t or won’t see what we should. In a brisk, easy-to-ready foray into vast interior territory, Heffernan (How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business Success, 2007, etc.) ranges broadly in examining willful blindness in its many forms, all potentially ruinous to people, companies, even countries. The author suggests we overlook the obvious for love, for ideology, out of sheer fatigue or an abundance of riches. Often, those with blinders are happy to follow orders, scared to stand up to power or lulled into oblivion by the comfort of the familiar. Her cast of villains is ripped from recent headlines; Heffernan cites culpably oblivious Kenneth Lay of Enron, incurious Bernie Madoff investors and negligently aloof BP executives as prime examples of her hypothesis. As the book progresses, the author warns that the repercussions of ignoring the obvious have already lead to the near-collapse of the global economy, and extols readers to take heed of the approaching havoc that will result from our collective inattention to climate change. There is little in these pages a reader with a liberal education doesn’t already know, but the author provides a fresh retelling, as well as a call to arms to any whistle-blowers who see what lies ahead and have the courage to speak up. We need more of these people, writes the author. Not a bolt of lightning, but a sharp-eyed perspective on the ever-gathering storm.
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BASKETBALL JUNKIE A Memoir
Herren, Chris and Bill Reynolds St. Martin’s (286 pp.) $24.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-312-65672-0
Another memoir from a gifted athlete who traded on-court success for a needle in the arm. The story of Herren, a Massachusetts high-school basketball legend who scored a dream gig with his hometown Boston Celtics, is all-too familiar. With the help of Providence Journal-Bulletin sports columnist Reynolds (Rise of a Dynasty: The ’57 Celtics, the First Banner, and the Dawning of a New America, 2010), Herren offers an unflinching look at a life of wasted potential, submitting his undiagnosed ADD, pressure from family and community and hereditary substance-abuse issues as mitigating factors, but manfully assuming full responsibility for his actions. He shows the frightening ease with which an athlete flush with game and cash can not only live a life of excess, but conceal his addiction from employers, teammates and friends. In painful detail, he recounts one horrific episode after another, from getting kicked off the Boston College team to blowing thousands of dollars a day on painkillers to, high on heroin, passing out on his way to buy donuts for his kids and being resuscitated by police. After burning countless bridges while his professional career sputtered in increasingly obscure foreign outposts, he finally hit rock-bottom in a rehab facility when, deprived of drugs and cut off from his long-suffering wife, the thought of not being able to raise his children gave him the strength to fight his way to sobriety. He rejoined his family, found gainful employment and started a thriving basketball academy and educational-speaking business. Metaphorical hoops junkies may find the paucity of game action disappointing, but Reynolds’s work in fleshing out the contextual details and Herren’s self-eviscerating forthrightness make this a worthwhile read. Nothing that hasn’t been written before, but told with such bluntness and heart that you can’t help but root for Herren to stay clean. (8-page black-and-white photo insert. Agent: David Vigliano/ Vigliano Associates)
SACRED TRASH The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza Hoffman, Adina and Peter Cole Schocken (304 pp.) $26.95 | April 5, 2011 978-0-8052-4258-4
Poet and essayist Hoffman (My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century, 2009, etc.) and poet and translator Cole (Things On Which I’ve Stumbled, 2008, etc.) chronicle the disinterment of an ancient stash of Hebrew scholarship.
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This absorbing academic detective story begins in Cambridge in 1896, when renowned Hebraist Solomon Schecter encountered twin sisters who told him about a synagogue in Old Cairo that contained vast gathering of documents which had been given proper entombment centuries earlier. The scholar promptly traveled to the cache—the “Geniza”—at the ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue where he found a huge, musty treasure of hitherto unknown Judaica. The material, pungent with the age of the earliest days of the second millennium, was written on paper and vellum in a variety of languages, though all used Hebrew orthography. Everyday letters and business correspondence formed a new portrait of the lives of medieval Jews. Most spectacular, especially in the case of a people who put much of their achievements and teaching in writing, was the recovery of liturgical poetry and wisdom from the Golden Age of Jewish Literature in Muslim Iberia. Hoffman and Cole are adroit in their exegesis of the writings of figures like Ben Sira and poet and philosopher Judah Halevi, and the authors pay appropriate tribute to the devoted scholars who arduously sifted through the dust of centuries. The Cairo Geniza has produced an important branch of scholarly discipline that continues today. An accessible, neatly narrated story of hallowed detritus and the resurrection of nearly 1,000 years of culture and learning.
SAVED BY BEAUTY Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran
Housden, Roger Broadway (320 pp.) $24.00 | e-book: $24.00 | May 17, 2011 978-0-307-58773-2 e-book 978-0-307-58775-6
The eloquent account of a Western poet’s encounters with the land, culture and people of Iran. When Housden (Ten Poems to Change Your Life, 2007, etc.) was a young man living in London in the early 1970s, he fell profoundly and permanently in love with Iranian literature, music, art and architecture. His vision of and attachment to Iran were highly idealized, however, based on second-hand cultural experiences that were “never tested by reality.” In 2007, as he was casting about for his next writing project, he had a flash of intuition. He would undertake an exploration of “the other Iran,” the country behind the politics and sensationalist headlines. The guides along this journey would include Rumi, the Persian mystic poet he had held close to his heart since youth; outspoken artists, thinkers, politicians and spiritual leaders; and everyday men and women. In his travels across Iran, Housden discovered a vibrant country made all the livelier by its abundant internal contradictions. Though austere on the surface with its apparent adherence to the fundamentalist tenets of Islam, Iran was a place where anything—from alcohol, Western films, drugs and sex—could be “delivered like a pizza” and where nose jobs and “Elvis haircuts” were the most popular and pervasive forms of social rebellion. At the same time, it was also a place steeped in tradition and a magnificent history that had deeply impacted the cultural and religious development of 288
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the West. But most movingly of all for Housden, a self-proclaimed romantic, Iran was where “Beauty [was] one of the names for God.” Elegantly soulful and uplifting. (Author events in San Francisco. Agent: Joy Harris/Joy Harris Literary Agency)
RED DUST ROAD An Autobiographical Journey
Kay, Jackie Atlas & Co. (304 pp.) $24.00 | April 13, 2011 978-1-935633-34-1
Poet and novelist Kay (Creative Writing/ Newcastle Univ.; The Lamplighter, 2009, etc.) recalls growing up black in a white adoptive family and the journey that reunited her with her birth parents. Immediately after her birth in 1961, the author, the love-child of a Scottish nurse and a Nigerian student, was put up for adoption. Two Glaswegians with communist leanings, John and Helen Kay, brought her into their home a few weeks later to keep the first “coloured child” they had adopted, Maxwell, company. Despite the inevitable prejudice she encountered in her largely segregated environment, the life she shared with her unconventional “mum and dad” was happy, and she grew up comfortable in her own skin. But like most adopted children, she began to wonder about her real parents, creating elaborate fantasies about a beautiful mother who had been madly in love with a father she imagined as “a handsome cross between Paul Robeson and Nelson Mandela.” It was only after she had reached adulthood and had given birth to her own child that Kay, prompted by questions regarding her medical history, decided to track down her parents. She finally met her mother Elizabeth, a “sad and troubled figure,” in 1991. More than a decade later, through a serendipitous series of events, Kay met her father, Jonathan, an academic turned fundamentalist Christian, in Nigeria. In the comic yet wrenching first meeting that would also be their last, Jonathan ritualistically attempted to cleanse his daughter and himself of past “sins.” By turns warm, funny and tender, Kay’s story offers insight into the universal human quest for self-knowledge. A joyful and humane exploration of the search for belonging.
THE EXTRA 2% How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First Keri, Jonah ESPN Books/Ballantine (272 pp.) $26.00 | e-book: $26.00 | April 1, 2011 978-0-345-51765-4 e-book 978-0-345-51773-9
This incisive account of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ rise from the cellar to the pennant suggests that baseball is a business like any other— and unlike any other.
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“Kersten explodes Darrow’s messy, complicated life, and concludes with a helpful bibliographic essay for students.” from clarence darrow
Those who run any of the struggling Major League franchises will find that Tampa Bay’s ascent in the toughest division in baseball—where the competition for the comparatively lowpayroll upstarts includes the perennially successful, big-market Yankees and Red Sox—isn’t a matter of luck or magic, but shrewd Wall Street strategizing. As documented by Bloomberg Sports baseball analyst Keri (editor: Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong, 2006), the Devil Rays had nowhere to go but up, after an owner known more for his penny-pinching than any baseball or public-relations acumen gave way to a brain trust of younger executives who applied principles from their financial careers (“positive arbitrage”) to the sport they loved. Though the author lacks the narrative flair of Michael Lewis, he also faced a tougher challenge. Among the principles imported from Wall Street was not to share the trade secrets underscoring decisions made by the front office and its “Mystery Men.” If there are significant holes in the storytelling—Keri provides little about the era of manager Lou Piniella, whom the Devil Rays acquired at the cost of a star outfielder—there is also significant revelation. Challenges remain for the Rays in terms of market size and the need for a new stadium, but this book shows how having a plan and sticking to it allows a team with financial savvy to trump those with deeper pockets. (Agent: Sydelle Kramer/Susan Rabiner Literary Agency)
GROWING AT THE SPEED OF LIFE A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden Kerr, Graham Perigee/Penguin (336 pp.) $27.00 | March 1, 2011 978-0-399-53612-0
Galloping Gourmet host Kerr (Day-by-Day Gourmet Cookbook, 2007, etc.) offers the cautionary tale of his first kitchen garden. Around the time Michelle Obama broke ground on the White House garden, the author was also trying his hand at the “earth-to-table process.” Kerr relates to any would-be gardeners his story of novice green-thumbing and provides a helpful “Need-to-Know” section for others to follow. He details the cultivation and cooking of 60 edible plants, the majority of which are accompanied by a handful of recipes and supplementary nutritional information. Although the author aims to inspire others to increase their daily fruit and vegetable intake, Kerr’s labor- and money-intensive trials may turn off some potential gardeners. And while he may intend the book to reach out to space-starved city-dwellers in addition to rural plotters, the author provides little useful advice for an economical and efficient urban kitchen garden. Kerr’s account of his first growing season is one of experience, not expertise, but he pulls it off with an enjoyably humorous and familiar tone. The book, however, falls short as a reference work for novices; the author often suggests reaching out to a “local knowledge expert,” leaving |
much of the research up to the reader, even in the important Need-to-Know list. But he does provide helpful instructions for how each fruit and vegetable should be handled once it arrives in the kitchen, whether from one’s own garden or the greenmarket down the street. A book lacking in gardening know-how but quite useful for its cooking tips.
CLARENCE DARROW American Iconoclast
Kersten, Andrew E. Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $28.00 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8090-9486-8
A tightly packed biography of “labor’s lyrical lawyer” and civil-liberties advocate. In pursuing Darrow’s lifetime (1857– 1938) of passionate public service, Kersten (History and Labor Studies/Univ. of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Labor’s Home Front: The American Federation of Labor during World War II, 2006, etc.) is mostly forgiving of his subject’s foibles—for example, his endsjustifies-the-means approach that tested friends’ loyalties and got him indicted for attempted bribery of a juror in the 1911 Los Angeles Times bombing case. Darrow was driven to address the inequity between rich and poor, no doubt influenced by his activist parents among a big family in Kinsman, Ohio. Darrow was a teacher before he was drawn to study law, which promised riches and fame. Moving from the small town to Chicago changed his life, both by introducing him to Henry George’s Progress and Poverty and immersion into Democratic politics. From his work as a lawyer for the Chicago North Western Railroad, he was jolted by the Pullman strike of 1894, organized by Eugene Debs; he joined the defense of the railway strikers to fight what he believed was a pernicious conspiracy “against the Constitution and the laws and the liberties of the people.” His first few defeats were shattering and public, tempered resounding triumphs like the trial of the Oshkosh sawmill unionists in 1898, the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1904 and defense of “Big Bill” Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners in 1907. His life was often in shambles—two troubled marriages, a lack of money, ill health— but Darrow was also remarkably resilient until a late age, making stump speeches for the Allies during World War I and defending evolution in the notorious Scopes trial of 1925. Kersten explodes Darrow’s messy, complicated life, and concludes with a helpful bibliographic essay for students. This is no hagiography, but rather a portrait of a truly human character trying to effect change while battling private demons. (8 pages of black-and-white illustrations)
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LEE KRASNER A Biography
Levin, Gail Morrow/HarperCollins (576 pp.) $30.00 | March 22, 2011 978-0-06-184525-3
First biography of Lee Krasner (1908– 1984), Jackson Pollock’s wife but also a significant artist in her own right. Levin (Art History/Baruch Coll.; Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, 2007, etc.) links Krasner’s motivations and underlying themes to her Russian Jewish background, though Krasner rejected not only religion, but also nationalism and feminism. The author considered herself part of the Paris School, influenced by Matisse and Picasso, and she was a strong influence on the birth of Abstract Expressionism—even though historians often ignore her impact. Politics played a large role in her life, but she kept them separate from her art. Krasner worked for the WPA Federal Art Project through the 1930s until 1943, and though she called herself a leftist, she never became a communist, saving her from the butchery of the HUAC hearings during the ’50s. When Krasner met Pollock, she was the first to recognize his genius and made sure that he lived up to her expectation that he would make art history. Her art took a back seat to his career, but she never stopped painting. Though she essentially became known just as Pollock’s wife, she still promoted him, protected him, drove him and cosseted him. Krasner and Pollock were among the first to move to Long Island, where both writers and artists came together to form a colony that flourished for years. Living with Pollock was a full-time job, and it took many years before Krasner could finally throw off the comparisons of her work to his. The woman’s movement finally brought recognition, but she only wanted to be known as an artist. Levin deftly connects Krasner’s biography to the social and political upheaval of the time. Her long experience in the art world gives insight into the landscape of 20th-century artists, art dealers and museums. (16-page color and 16-page black-andwhite photo inserts. Agent: Loretta Barrett/Loretta Barrett Books)
PAKISTAN A Hard Country
Lieven, Anatol PublicAffairs (560 pp.) $35.00 | April 12, 2011 978-1-61039-021-7
Comprehensive examination of the resilient workings of an important nation very much in the news. Despite a deeply splintered and inequitable society, entrenched feudalism, frequent natural and ecological disasters and incorrigible corruption, Pakistan promises to endure and become a significant player in the region, writes Lieven (War Studies/ King’s Coll., London; America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of 290
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American Nationalism, 2004, etc.). America’s lack of interest in Pakistan since the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan in 1989 proved to be a terrible mistake, as the United States now needs aid in fighting the Afghan Taliban, which the Pakistanis feel sympathetic to as a force trying to expel a foreign invader. Moreover, the U.S.-Israel alliance, the U.S. “tilt to India,” economic sanctions in the 1990s, support of a series of autocratic generals and today’s President Zardari, and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have all exacerbated resentment against the West. (Lieven notes that a surprising number of Pakistanis he spoke to believe that “9/11 was not in fact carried out by Al Qaeda but was a plot by the Bush administration, Israel, or both.”) Originally, the author titled his book “How Pakistan Works,” alluding to its dysfunctional working model that befuddles the West but manages to be fairly typical of the region, even next to democratic India. Indeed, with two-thirds of the population of the combined Arab world, a land acutely affected by climate change and one of the most powerful armies in Asia, Pakistan would surely bring down neighbor India, too, if it should fall. Lieven breaks down his study by specific region; considers the structures of justice, religion, the military and politics in turn; and, finally, in a skillful, insightful synthesis, addresses the history of and issues concerning the Taliban, both Pakistani and Afghani. A well-reasoned, welcome resource for Western “experts” and lay readers alike. (16-page black-and-white photo insert. Agent: Natasha Fairweather/AP Watt)
INDIGO In Search of the Color that Seduced the World
McKinley, Catherine E. Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $27.00 | May 10, 2011 978-1-60819-505-3
One woman’s journey to Africa to discover the secret history of indigo. In her quest to unravel the mysteries of this precious dye, McKinley (The Book of Sarahs: A Family In Parts, 2002) traveled to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and other African nations. Indigo, “the bluest of blues,” has maintained a significant presence on the global stage for generations. “No color has been prized so highly or for so long,” writes the author, “or been at the center of such turbulent human encounters.” This turbulence is a clear reference to the slave trade, and McKinley argues that the history of Africa appears to be woven into the color itself. During the author’s adventures, she introduces the reader to a wide cast of characters who slip in and out of the narrative unobtrusively—like Lady Diana, a master seamstress whose technique McKinley observed for hours on end, and Aunt Mercy, whose dyeing skills were rivaled by no one. The author even learned lessons from the recently deceased, a Mr. Ghilcreist, who—unbeknownst to him—taught McKinley about indigo’s role in burial rights, how the color is “not really a color” but an “attempt to capture beauty, to hold the elusive, the
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“From cartoon porn to foot fetishes, the authors write with enthusiasm and in engaging detail, often incorporating the neuroscientific basis for results, yet retaining an accessible vernacular throughout.” from a billion wicked thoughts
fine layer of skin between the two.” The author’s main contact was Eurama, a Ghanaian shop girl with ties to the cloth market, and with her help, McKinley crossed the continent in search of indigo’s history, as well as the colored cloth itself. While memoir and history often become tangled, the book represents a valiant effort to recount the social and historical implications of a color. (4-color photo insert. Appearances in New York and Washington, D.C. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy/Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency)
A BILLION WICKED THOUGHTS What the World’s Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire Ogas, Ogi and Sai Gaddam Dutton (416 pp.) $26.95 | May 5, 2011 978-0-525-95209-1
An in-depth look at the variety of forms in which human sexual desire manifests, based on an analysis of 500 million people and their anonymous—thus, likely truthful—online revelations. Every day, millions of people voluntarily reveal intimate details about their sexual preferences online through search queries, adult websites, classified ads, stories and videos. During the course of their research into the nature of human sexual desire, neuroscientists Ogas and Gaddam analyzed half a billion of these and, combined with the latest findings in conceptual neuroscience, discovered that the data yielded some unexpected information about sexual preference. Some quirkier examples include the Japanese fascination with a woman’s “absolute territory” (the space of exposed skin between the bottom of a skirt and the top of kneehigh stockings); the fact that fantasies of older women are very popular among straight men; and that paranormal erotic literature is increasingly popular among women. Also intriguing is the authors’ analysis of the relatively small divergence of sexual preference between straight and gay men (excepting the obvious masculine/feminine aspects) and the surprising discovery about which faction is most curious about transsexuals. More expected results also abound: Men are aroused visually, whereas women prefer to have their imaginations stimulated; men desire sex, and woman desire the feeling of being desired; men have a direct mind-body connection when it comes to arousal, and women experience a more complex series of thoughts and emotions, often displaying an intellectual distaste for stimuli that might simultaneously excite them physically. Perhaps partly as a result of this, there exists no pharmaceutical equivalent of Viagra for women. From cartoon porn to foot fetishes, the authors write with enthusiasm and in engaging detail, often incorporating the neuroscientific basis for results, yet retaining an accessible vernacular throughout that references pop culture as often as the laboratory. An enjoyable, exhaustive and often insightful look at what turns us on—sure to excite readers.
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THE BOND Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them
Pacelle, Wayne Morrow/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $26.99 | April 12, 2011 978-0-06-196978-2
In this debut memoir, Pacelle describes the activities of the Humane Society of the United States, under his direction, and presents the compelling case that by challenging cruelty to animals we are defending our own humanity. Reviewing the complexity of the human-animal bond, the author attacks convenient moral blindness—the fact that we cherish our pets but turn a blind eye to the systematic abuse of the animals we eat. By refusing “to believe that animals have intelligence, or even conscious life,” despite evidence to the contrary, we are allowing “economic interests to do as they please.” Under his direction, HSUS joined other animal-protection groups to campaign for Proposition 2, a 2008 successful California ballot initiative “to ban the extreme confinement of twenty million animals on concentrated animal feeding operations.” Adopting what he describes as a relatively new strategy, HSUS employed an undercover investigator to penetrate the operations of Hallmark, a plant where worn-out three-year-old dairy cows were slaughtered for meat. He filmed an instance of a “downer” cow too weak to stand that was chained to a tractor and dragged over rough terrain, and others of cows given electric shots on their genitals or eyes to force them on their feet, and then provided the footage to the media. This turned a national spotlight on the agribusinesses processes and gained international attention concerning the sale of possibly contaminated American beef. Another successful campaign, undertaken after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, resulted in congressional legislation to include pets in FEMA disaster planning. Pacelle is an activist and an optimist who believes that change will come and that, as with every great cause, “it begins with each one of us.” (Author tour to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.)
HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA “ON THE FLY”
Pekar, Harvey Illustrator: McClinton, Summer Villard (176 pp.) $19.95 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-0-345-49941-7 This posthumously published collection of narratives provides footnotes on the life immortalized through American Splendor. The pride of Cleveland and patriarch of the autobiographical comic-book narrative worked with New York artist Summer McClinton on pieces that
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generally reflect his life through the stories of others whom he found interesting. The opener, “Hollywood Bob,” tells the story of Cleveland’s limo driver to the stars (and to Pekar), an ex-con who ended up befriending many of the famous people he drove (including Meg Ryan, who doesn’t look familiar in McClinton’s rendering, and Leslie Nielsen, who gave the driver a “fart machine”). Then there’s a series of narratives on “Tunc & Eileen” and their many changes of jobs and partners before finding each other and telling their stories to Pekar. “Neighborhood Spark Plug” is the most compelling of the narratives, detailing the life of one of Pekar’s buddies and his ill-fated adventures in trying to restore and relocate a diner before returning to an expanded version of his toy store with delights for adult collectors. The longest and last piece is the title story, recounting Pekar’s trip to a book festival in West Virginia, after the interest from the film version of American Splendor had died down (and his speaking fee had dropped from the thousands into the hundreds). Like much of the collection, it’s a minor slice of life that doesn’t really build to any particular point, except as the book reflects the narrator’s obsession “to get the details of the story right.” Pekar fans will enjoy this minor work from a major figure.
THE MORAL LIVES OF ANIMALS
Peterson, Dale Bloomsbury (352 pp.) $26.00 | March 15, 2011 978-1-59691-424-7
A distinguished science writer scrutinizes how certain behaviors demonstrated across species resonate with human values. This is a book that could actually change readers’ assumptions, opinions and beliefs about the differences between Homo sapiens and other animals. Peterson (Elephant Reflections, 2009, etc.), who has traveled the world with leading primatologists such as Jane Goodall and Frans de Waal, distills their findings, and, using his own observations, argues that animals share many traits we may think of as exclusively human. After cross-culturally defining various moral concepts and their sources, the author examines attributes where morality may manifest, such as sex, violence, kindness and cooperation. Peterson traces an ambitious and exciting arc between gender relations, hierarchal authoritarian structures, ownership and displays of affiliation, and proposes that we have veered from Darwin’s findings that we are not unique, and that our fellow creatures have much higher order of feelings then we might be comfortable with. Sharing fascinating anecdotes about elephants, whales and primates, Peterson highlights the unity rather than diversity of social structures around sharing food, intimacy, competition for resources, grooming, mourning and dominance. A thorough and sophisticated book, yet accessible and enjoyable even for those with little previous exposure to the topic. (Appearances in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C.) 292
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THE PUN ALSO RISES How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More than Some Antics
Pollack, John Gotham Books (224 pp.) $22.50 | April 14, 2011 978-1-592-40623-4
A champion punster finds hidden and significant meaning in cunning wordplay. Pollack (Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built, 2005, etc.), a former presidential speechwriter, was the 1995 winner of the O. Henry World Championship Pun-Off. The moderately puerile samples from that war of words, found in the introduction, should be overlooked in favor of the more sophisticated content that follows. His thesis is that puns, commonly reviled, have serious implications. After a generous definition, the author examines the etymology, neurology, anthropology and sociology of primeval gags, antique jokes and hoary wordplay. Pollack finds puns in ancient cuneiform tablets, today’s newspaper headlines, knock-knock jokes, TV comedy and movies—and, of course, in Master Shakespeare’s copious riffs. There have always been more groans than giggles from pungent critics like Sam Johnson and Oliver Wendell Holmes, but Pollack counter punches in his defense of punning, holding it to be no real mistreatment of one’s mother tongue but simply an arty vice. He provides examples of the penchant by embedding puns throughout his short text. A conjuror at this literary con game, many of his best are concealed, challenging the reader to find them all. Thus, one relevant problem is that students will long be on the alert to finding puns, present or not, in unrelated reading. Another and more perilous threat is that reviewers, those scoffing wretches, will feel challenged to pun in appraisals of this book. But, at least in this case, the pun is mightier than the “pshaw!” A fun, cogent argument in favor of a dubious, often-damned art.
BONEHEADS My Search for T. rex
Polsky, Richard Council Oak (240 pp.) $25.00 | April 15, 2011 978-1-57178-253-3
A successful art enthusiast finds his true calling in the quest for dinosaur remains. At age 50, author and art columnist Polsky (I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon), 2009, etc.) took a good look at his extensive yet stagnant 25-year career as an art dealer and decided to dive into his true life’s passion of dinosaur exploration. To realize his goal of unearthing the skeletal remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the author enlisted the aid of seasoned paleontologist Henry Galiano, who
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“Recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand Aspergian children and adults.” from be different
cautioned him about the competitiveness of the dinosaur-hunting community. Galiano officially navigated Polsky through his first trade convention, and the author met with commercial fossil dealer Mike Triebold, “fossil king” Bob Detrich and Maurice Williams, the owner of the land where the legendary “Sue” T-rex skeleton was excavated in 1990. When Galiano and fellow paleontologist Peter Larson declined to participate in his frenzied endeavor, Polsky was crestfallen, especially when his luck (and time) ran out while scraping across Williams’ hallowed property in the South Dakota badlands. Exasperated yet undeterred, the author regrouped with an overconfident Detrich to assemble a ragtag party of die-hard fossil hunters (“boneheads”), including a pair of bickering fraternal twin brothers and rancher Bucky Derflinger, who became the youngest person to discover (and sell) a T. rex. Polsky takes distinct delight in writing about the history of paleontology, pricey dinosaur casts, a rumored T. rex “curse” and the general frustration felt when confronted with a declining seller’s market due to the saturation of online marketplaces. Whether successful or not, the author’s fortitude remains palpable. He writes with earnest and lighthearted exuberance, expressing an obvious love of the hunt, even during the most hopeless moments of his spirited adventure. Both a briskly guided tour of a fading industry and a vibrant example of self-discovery.
BE DIFFERENT Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian Robison, John Elder Crown Archetype (304 pp.) $24.00 | March 29, 2011 978-0-307-88481-7
A guide to making the most of living with Asperger’s Syndrome. Aspergian Robison (Look Me In the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, 2007) offers down-to-earth life advice for his “Aspie” peers and their friends, families and teachers. The author grew up never fully understanding why he, an intelligent, capable man, could never quite fit in. It was only when he was diagnosed with Asperger’s at age 40 that he realized his quirkiness arose from having been born with a mind that made connections in ways different from what he calls “nypicals” —people with neurotypical or “normal” brains. Unlike so many other Aspergians who end up alienated, alone and unemployed, Robison gradually found ways to overcome his social and communication deficits and transform his differences—such as superior concentration, abstract reasoning and mechanical skills—into gifts. Beginning with a chapter that gives a human face—his own—to the “restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior” associated with Asperger’s, Robison proceeds with a discussion of the thornier interpersonal issues Aspergians face. Compensation for all or most of these challenges is possible, argues the author, by combining the Aspergian strength of logical analysis with observation, an awareness of past experiences and practice. Learning |
to live in a “nypical” world was not easy for the author—“[i]t’s been a lifetime job for me”—but the rewards have made his efforts undeniably worthwhile. Recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand Aspergian children and adults.
AFFIRMED The Last Triple Crown Winner Sahadi, Lou Dunne/St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $24.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-312-62808-6
Sports historian Sahadi (One Sunday in December: The 1958 NFL Championship Game and How It Changed Professional Football, 2008, etc.) tells the story of Affirmed’s 1978 Triple Crown triumph. “The decade of the seventies,” writes the author, “was the golden age of thoroughbred racing,” as incomparable horses such as Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Riva Ridge strutted their stuff on America’s racing turf. But no horse captured the imagination of race fans, and the general public, as did Affirmed, and his rivalry with Alydar” “It was Ali-Frazier, Palmer-Nicklaus, and McEnroe-Connors, right there with them.” The rise of Affirmed brought together an unlikely collection of characters. There was millionaire owner Louis Wolfson, who nine years earlier had been imprisoned—unjustly, contends Sahadi—for a white-collar crime; colorful and wise trainer Laz Barrera, who had emigrated from Castro’s Cuba to Mexico and then arrived almost penniless in California and jockey superstar Steve Cauthen. Riding since he could walk, his string of victories in 1977, at the tender age of 17, made Cauthen a national celebrity, appearing on The Tonight Show and a Wheaties box and, of course, recording an album. As 2-year-olds in 1977, Affirmed and Alydar established their own notoriety. In six meetings, Affirmed won four times, but all by a small margin. As the 1978 Triple Crown season arrived, it was anybody’s guess who among the two might emerge triumphant. While Affirmed did win each race, each time it was only by the slimmest of margins. Affirmed had established his greatness, but he had been pushed all the way by the challenge of Alydar. Sahadi ably captures the atmosphere of the horse-racing world and the characters surrounding Affirmed, although a tendency toward hagiography (Wolfson is “a distinguished man of letters with a decorous and noble appearance”) and repetition (Cauthen is too often described as “fuzzy cheeked”) occasionally bogs down the narrative. Engaging history of perhaps horse-racing’s finest moment. (8-page black-and-white photo insert. Agent: Marianne Strong/Marianne Strong Literary Agency)
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VIDAL The Autobiography
Sassoon, Vidal Macmillan UK/Trafalgar (360 pp.) $27.95 | April 15, 2011 978-0-230-74689-3
A richly nuanced blend of memoir and personal opinion by a name synonymous with hairstyling. Sassoon passionately recounts times of great joy and struggle throughout his life. He was raised in London in the 1930s by his beloved, headstrong mother Betty after his father abandoned the family, leaving them to exist in near-poverty. Placed in an orphanage for seven years, he emerged amid the turmoil of World War II and, acting on a “premonition,” Betty insisted he apprentice at the salon of well-respected London hairdresser Adolph Cohen. Though initially resistant, Sassoon acquiesced, writing that Cohen’s measured tutelage nurtured his budding haircutting ability and reshaped his personal appearance—with minimal fallout to clientele. During this time, Sassoon honed his talents with work in a succession of salons while remaining reverential to his mother’s Zionist beliefs. Respect for his heritage manifested in involvement with Jewish rights activism movements before he was drafted into the Royal Air Force at 18 and then traveled to Israel. The author writes of his eventual return to England as the driving force behind a thirst for beauty-industry wisdom and trade secrets from hairstyling luminaries. Former client Lila Burkeman co-financed his first independent salon in London, and, in the wake of two short-lived marriages, Sassoon ramped up his career, mingled with celebrities and designers at styling competitions and finally opened a newer salon that quickly caught the attention of the media. The advent of the author’s signature geometric cut (specifically on actress Nancy Kwan) and pixie style (Mia Farrow) became pivotal as business expansion to America boosted his exposure, making way for a distinctive line of hair-care products. Sassoon consistently demonstrates compassion and finesse when writing about the evolution of his family, friends, romance, humanitarian work and the charmed livelihood that made him a household name. A well-rounded, enterprising life’s journey, expressed with grace and humility.
FINDING HIGHER GROUND Adaptation in the Age of Warming
Seidl, Amy Beacon (216 pp.) $24.95 | e-book: $21.95 | June 7, 2011 978-0-8070-8598-1 e-book 978-0-8070-8599-8 Unlike many ecologists who fear that global warning will lead to a planetary catastrophe, Seidl (Research Scholar/
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Middlebury Coll.; Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World, 2009) sees it as a spur to positive adaptation. Taking her lead from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin, she writes that both men were correct: “Now in an era of warming, where organisms experience suddenly changing environments, we see…how seminal adaptation is to the evolution of life.” Seidl cites coral reefs, “the poster child for extinction in oceanic environments,” as a case in point— marine ecologists have discovered resilient reefs off the coast of Africa which appear to be successfully recovering. Exploring the effects of climate change already apparent in the behavior of birds, fish, insects and plant life, the author looks for analogous proactive transformations in human society and finds hope in the resilience of nature and in human ingenuity when it is spurred by challenge. One of the areas of cutting-edge research today is the study of the interplay between built-in genetic plasticity, which allows a species to acclimatize to novel conditions, and actual genetic mutations. This has practical relevance for ongoing research devoted to developing new seeds, and scientists are currently examining the wild varieties of 300 crops that have sustained human life throughout our existence. Seidl gives examples from her Vermont community and her family’s efforts—growing their own vegetables and buying local produce, using solar panels supplemented by a wind-driven generator to power their home—to illustrate how, at the grassroots level, a transition to a green society is emerging. Seidl’s glass-half-full optimism is a welcome change from the many fatalistic prognostications of the future. (New England events. Agent: Russell Galen/Scovil, Chichak, Galen Agency)
DANCING IN THE GLORY OF MONSTERS The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War in Africa Stearns, Jason K. PublicAffairs (400 pp.) $28.99 | March 29, 2011 978-1-58648-929-8
Impressively controlled account of the devastating Congo war, which has caused more than 5 million deaths. Stearns, who in 2008 led a special UN investigation regarding the region’s violence, argues that the war “had no one cause, no clear conceptual essence that can be easily distilled in a couple of paragraphs.” While he agrees that the 1994 Rwandan genocide provided the war’s genesis, he argues that a less-understood factor was the experience of the Banyamulenge, a Tutsi group that emigrated to the Congo long before and suffered persecution ever since. The Congo was first invaded in 1996, when Laurent Kabila deposed Mobutu, but the wider war began in 1998, between disparate coalitions: Kabila’s army and Hutu militias on one side, and the Rwandan military and their allies on another. “The war scuttled
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“Stewart’s prose is simple and to the point. She lets the little horrors she describes work in the reader’s imagination without any hyperbolic help from her.” from wicked bugs
all plans for long-term reform and prompted quick fixes that only further debilitated the state,” writes Stearns. The author illuminates the tangled relationships between Kabila, Rwandan Tutsi leader Paul Kagame and many other players as few journalists have. The book’s greatest strength is the eyewitness dialogue; Stearns discusses his encounters with everyone from major military figures to residents of remote villages (he was occasionally suspected of being a CIA spy). He reveals the bravery and suffering of ordinary Africans, while underscoring “how deeply entrenched in society the Congolese crisis had become.” As the chronology moves into the previous decade, his tale becomes increasingly complex and disturbing. Regional proxy wars involving rebel offshoots and tribal militia groups spun out of control, intensifying violence against civilians. Kabila was assassinated in 2001, possibly due to grudges held by angry child soldiers backed by Rwanda, and replaced by his son, who pursued a tenuous peace marred by continued economic stagnation and chaos. By that time, the belligerent nations “had over a dozen rebel proxies or allies battling each other.” An important examination of a social disaster that seems both politically complex and cruelly senseless. (Agent: Robert Guinsler/Sterling Lord Literistic)
RAISING ELIJAH Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis
Steingraber, Sandra Merloyd Lawrence/Da Capo (320 pp.) $26.00 | April 22, 2011 978-0-7382-1399-6 Biologist and environmental-health writer Steingraber (Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, 2001, etc.) confronts the hormone-disrupting, brain-damaging toxins our children absorb from the playground to the kitchen floor, and everywhere in between. A mother of two, the author is extra-sensitive to the many dangers lurking in her children’s everyday experiences. Though she’s occasionally overly sensitive (“I don’t even like having my kids in the kitchen while pasta is cooking or being drained”), Steingraber writes with clarity about many of the poisonous chemical agents that infest our daily lives—the arsenic that leaches from pressure-treated wood, the pesticides on food, PVCs in the kitchen tiling, asbestos and lead paint—and the unique risks they pose to children. The author capably sketches the background of the toxins, the ways in which we are exposed to them and how she has sought to avoid them in the home. The book gets its rhythm and appeal from the twining of science and personal examples—e.g., the time her husband ripped up the tiles on their kitchen floor, only to find asbestos tiles below that and then lead-based paint below that. When it comes to the politics of it all, Steingraber is bracingly elemental. Because the government has simply not done its job of ensuring domestic |
environmental tranquility, “[t]he way we protect our kids from terrible knowledge is not to hide the terrible knowledge…but to let them watch us rise up in the face of terrible knowledge and do something.” An artful commingling of life with children, environmental mayhem and political-science primer. A great companion to Philip and Alice Shabecoff ’s Poisoned Profits (2008). (Tie-in to author’s speaking schedule. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy/Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency)
WICKED BUGS The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects
Stewart, Amy Illustrator: Morrow-Cribbs, Briony Algonquin (288 pp.) $18.95 | May 3, 2011 978-1-56512-960-3
An illustrated compendium of facts about bugs behaving badly. Journalist Stewart (Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities, 2009, etc.), who blogs mainly on subjects of interest to gardeners, turns her focus to the evil that our fellow living things do to us and to each other. The book is not a comprehensive field guide but a smorgasbord of facts—ranging from horrible, painful or otherwise discomfiting—about bugs. Her subjects, beautifully illustrated by Morrow-Cribbs’ plentiful etchings, include well-known evil-doers like cockroaches, tent caterpillars, bed bugs and deer ticks, but also stranger critters. For example: the bullet ant of South America, whose bite is described as feeling like a gunshot; the chigoe flea, which does some very unpleasant business under human toenails; and the Formosan subterranean termite, which, plausibly, caused more damage to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina than wind and water. Stewart’s uncovers some eyeopening facts: Some of the bugs included here are not as bad as their reputations would have us believe: Two spiders, the black widow and brown recluse, for example, may have nasty bites, but they’re deadlier to each other than they are to humans. On the other hand, earthworms, about which Stewart has glowingly written before, are not always the little earth angels they appear to be, especially in the forests of Minnesota where they behave more like an invading foreign species than a native. (In fact, most American earthworms are descendants of a European species.) Stewart’s prose is simple and to the point. She lets the little horrors she describes work in the reader’s imagination without any hyperbolic help from her. Guaranteed to cause sympathy itching and other discomfort. (2-color throughout)
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YOUR FARM IN THE CITY An Urban Dweller’s Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals
Taylor, Lisa and The Gardeners of Seattle Tilth Black Dog & Leventhal (320 pp.) $23.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-57912-862-3
Basic guide for first-time urban gardeners. The local food movement is urging more people out of the grocery aisles and into their backyards, and Taylor’s just the person to shepherd them through the transition. The author, a longtime member and education director of the renowned urban-gardening organization Seattle Tilth, offers simple step-by-step instruction for planning, growing and caring for a garden. From smallcontainer gardens to community plots to apiaries, Taylor distills her years of expertise into an accessible how-to format, complete with useful illustrations and charts. She includes readily replicable tests to determine soil type, and troubleshoots water issues and nutrient loads in the process. There are guidelines for composting, rain harvesting and tool buying. The author explains how to deal with good and bad insects, as well as other garden predators, providing eco-friendly solutions for a number of common garden conundrums. The book includes a list of easy-to-grow fruits and vegetables, supplemented with cultivation and harvesting tips that aren’t readily available on the back of a seed packet. Expert techniques can be found here as well, alongside tips for novices, and her straightforward writing style is suitable for all levels of gardener. Not a complete resource on its own, Taylor’s guide suggests a number of websites, organizations and other gardening books that will take beginners well into the next growing season. Accessible, one-stop manual for fledgling green-thumbs. (Author appearances in Seattle, Portland and San Francisco)
SPIRITS OF JUST MEN Mountaineers, Liquor Bosses, and Lawmen in the Moonshine Capital of the World
Thompson, Charles D. Univ. of Illinois (280 pp.) $23.95 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-0-252-07808-8
A scholarly dissection of the 1930s moonshine-based economy of Franklin County, Virginia. Filmmaker and author Thompson (Cultural Anthropology/ Duke Univ.; The Old German Baptist Brethren: Faith, Farming and Change in the Virginia Blue Ridge, 2006, etc.) uses his family’s history in Franklin County to delve deeper into the subject of moonshining, as well as the federal government’s effort to halt its production. While the author focuses on the trial that all but toppled the illegal industry, far more interesting is the local color. Thompson brings the area to life, offering a portrait of a place that the government 296
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forgot, a blue-collar town run amok with barefoot children and well-armed men. With an utter lack of resources, county citizens were forced to “invent an economy from scratch”—homemade liquor became the primary cash crop. However, Thompson argues that the guilty parties were not merely the moonshiners, but those who overlooked the crippling poverty that plagued the town. “Without a doubt,” he writes, “some [moonshiners] were honest and hardworking and made whiskey for some cash money for their families. Others were out for profits well beyond a simple leaving.” The author paints an overly sympathetic portrait of a crime-filled town, but he does so for good reason. This is a story as much about a culture wilting away as it is about the crimes that were committed there. As the moonshiners might argue, seeking a way to feed one’s family can hardly be considered a crime. The town offered few alternatives, writes Thompson, and the people of Franklin County filled every jug they could for profit. A meticulous, exhaustive history of moonshining, poverty and Blue Ridge culture. (29 black-and-white photographs)
GOD’S CENTURY Resurgent Religion and Global Politics
Toft, Monica Duffy and Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah Norton (288 pp.) $25.95 | March 14, 2011 978-0-393-06926-6 Nietzsche famously declared that “God is dead.” Toft (Public Policy/Harvard Univ.), Philpott (Political Science and Peace Studies/Univ. of Notre Dame) and Shah (Boston Univ. Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs) suggest that the rumors of His death have been greatly exaggerated. The authors claim that the influence of religion on the thinking and behavior of human beings may be stronger than ever, and they explore the implications of that influence over each of us as individuals and the world as a whole. Is religion a force for good or evil in politics? How much influence does and should it have? These are just two of the larger questions that the authors ask and then attempt to answer. Their sharp analysis, meticulous research and original thinking make for an enjoyable reading experience, and their willingness to unpack subtleties and address complexity keep their work from becoming biased or one-sided. In addition to critiquing religion, the authors celebrate it. Religion isn’t a good or bad thing so much as it can be a good or bad thing. Any major religion claims adherents both irrational and violent as well as just and kind. The authors then consider how religion might be a force for good and not for ill, and these specifics are the most engaging parts of the book. The authors offer concrete suggestions for confronting the challenges that religion’s influence can bring, as well as making the most of the unique perspective offered by religious thinkers and doers. In a world where religion isn’t going away and may, in fact, be on the rise, Toft, Philpott and Shah urge us to take the influence of God seriously and to not simply accept or dismiss it as “good” or “bad.”
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“He addresses the issues forthrightly but with a scrupulous lack of salaciousness or soulsearching or anything approaching a strong emotional response. Van Dyke is clearly happiest relating amusing anecdotes about his Midwestern boyhood...” from my lucky life in and out of show business
In an age of Osteen and Hitchens, it’s refreshing to see the subject of religion addressed in this nonpartisan, insightful way. (10 illustrations)
WHEN GADGETS BETRAY US The Dark Side of Our Infatuation with New Technologies
Vamosi, Robert Basic (240 pp.) $26.95 | April 1, 2011 978-0-465-01958-8
A compelling scrutiny of the ways in which technological enhancements can be exploited for nefarious purposes. PCWorld contributing editor Vamosi freely acknowledges that “people today can’t live without their technology,” but with that dependency comes a startling amount of consumer vulnerability. He explores many of the ways that cybercriminals track and pilfer personal information after hijacking mobile phones, credit cards, ID card information, passports, bank accounts and automobiles. Among the perpetrators profiled is Czechoslovakian career-criminal Radko Soucek, who began stealing cars as a youth using a pair of scissors and eventually masterminded a method using only his laptop, which soccer pro David Beckham fell prey to after a pair of his BMWs were stolen through their keyless ignition systems in 2005. The opportunities for security breaches expand every day, writes the author. He also examines how technology compromises our personal privacy when “electronic breadcrumbs” stored in places like automobile “black boxes,” mass-transit payment cards laptop hard drives, tollbooths and drivers’ licenses can be used in litigation and marketing strategies. Whereas it would be easy enough to place the blame on flawed technology, Vamosi faults the human innovators of these tools as well for their failure in not designing built-in, preventative security features. He points to user education and awareness as the solution to the conundrum of leaky data systems “to effect wise behavior in order to minimize personal risk.” An erudite wake-up call. (Author tour to San Francisco and Seattle. Tie-in to author lecture schedule. Agent: David Fugate/ LaunchBooks Literary Agency)
MY LUCKY LIFE IN AND OUT OF SHOW BUSINESS A Memoir
Van Dyke, Dick Crown Archetype (320 pp.) $25.00 | e-book: $25.00 | May 3, 2011 978-0-307-59223-1 e-book 978-0-307-59226-2 A song and dance man of the first order looks back. Van Dyke breezily recounts his adventures as a straight-down-the-middle “square” and family |
man navigating the vicissitudes of show business in this slight memoir, which highlights the strengths and pitfalls of the performer’s signature amiability. The author is unfailingly pleasant company on the page, and his low-stakes anecdotes and fond remembrances go down easily. But his unwillingness or inability to confront the uglier aspects of life (and particularly life in Hollywood) ultimately makes for a rather bland repast. It’s not as if Van Dyke lacked material; his well-publicized battle with alcoholism and the dissolution of his longtime marriage would seem ripe for serious introspection, but this is not the author’s style. He addresses the issues forthrightly but with a scrupulous lack of salaciousness or soul-searching or anything approaching a strong emotional response. Van Dyke is clearly happiest relating amusing anecdotes about his Midwestern boyhood, struggling early days in show business and his successes in such classic examples of all-American family entertainment as Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins and the deathless Dick Van Dyke Show, still a high-water mark in the history of TV comedy. Van Dyke heaps love and praise on collaborators like Carl Reiner and Mary Tyler Moore, who surely deserve it, but the unremitting niceness becomes numbing, to the extent that a couple of bawdy incidents involving actress Maureen Stapleton stand out as Caligula-like descents into depravity by comparison. The author’s earnest, boyish persona anchored his astounding gifts as a physical performer—his rubber-limbed pratfalls, fleet dancing and instinctive genius with bits of comedy “business” are justly revered—but absent this physical dimension, Van Dyke here is earnestly, boyishly…dull. Perfectly pleasant, mildly diverting and forgettable—kind of like an episode of Diagnosis: Murder. (One 16-page 4-color insert. Author interviews and appearances in Los Angeles and New York. Agent: Dan Strone/Trident Media Group)
QUARTER-ACRE FARM: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year
Warren, Spring Seal Press (256 pp.) $16.95 paperback | March 1, 2011 978-1-58005-340-2 The story of a farming experiment that reaped far more than fruits and vegetables. Skepticism is the first seed planted when Warren (Turpentine, 2007), a novice gardener and self-proclaimed slacker, sought to transform her yard into a farm, in which she intended to produce 75 percent of her family’s consumable food. The author readily admits, “I hate weeding. I forget to water. My garden is a testing ground for plants able to withstand abuse.” This humility and honesty sets the tone for not only the project, but the book as well. Warren’s enthusiasm gained her family’s gradual compliance, and each member and even a few friends contributed to the experiment in their own way. Son Sam was an enthusiast in the kitchen, his brother Jesse an avid mushroomer, and Warren’s husband’s patience and support cultivated not only a harvest,
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but family harmony as well. The author roots beneath the surface, revealing a candid account of what does and doesn’t work whether in the garden, the kitchen or her life. She provides gardening tips in a witty, approachable manner, most obvious in the chapter “Sadism in the Garden.” Her advice is properly seasoned with a blend of recipes that range from the simple to the downright eccentric—while trying to rid the farm of snails, a bit of culinary research confirmed her suspicion that the pests were closely related to the delicacy escargot. No matter the undertaking or the outcome, Warren demonstrates how determination and a willingness to learn can yield more than crops. Perfect balance of tips, recipes and anecdotes for continual referencing.
THE LISBON ROUTE Entry and Escape in Nazi Europe
Weber, Ronald Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield (358 pp.) $27.95 | April 16, 2011 978-1-56663-876-0 A leisurely, story-filled account of life in Nazi-occupied Europe’s last open door to freedom. During World War II, the port city of Lisbon, in neutral Portugal, was the destination for a flood of refugees fleeing the Nazi terror who hoped to make their way to the United States and elsewhere. An estimated 100,000 or more refugees passed through the old-fashioned European capital, writes Weber (American Studies/Univ. of Notre Dame; News of Paris: American Journalists in the City of Light Between the Wars, 2006, etc.), often waiting for weeks or months for a place on a freighter, fishing boat or plane. At the same time, reporters, diplomats, spies, military leaders and others shuttled in and out freely, and the formerly sleepy city became a frenzied bazaar, charged with energy, conspiratorial feeling and moral uncertainty. With its abundant food and gambling, the city had the bright air of prewar Paris. But rumors of an imminent Nazi invasion of defenseless Portugal were constant, and refugees searching for visas and transport feared their funds might run out. Lisbon had an unreality about it, said French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The city played at happiness, and exiles played at clinging to their past identities. Based on newspaper accounts as well as diaries and letters, Weber’s book brings the wartime city to life, tracing the machinations of agents and double agents in bars and hotels; Varian Fry’s work on behalf of the International Rescue Committee to find safe passage for artists and intellectuals; and secret meetings where belligerents exchanged information. With the war’s end, Prime Minister Antonio Salazar’s authoritarian government began promoting the country as a postwar tourist destination. An engaging but overlong chronicle of a city that was “a way into Europe as well as a way out.”
FOUNDING GARDENERS The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation
Wulf, Andrea Knopf (352 pp.) $30.00 | April 1, 2011 978-0-307-26990-4
Design historian Wulf (The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession, 2009, etc.) explains how the Founders brought a new nation and their own gardens simultaneously to fruition. Surely, the author goes too far to say that “it’s impossible to understand the making of America without looking at the founding fathers as farmers and gardeners.” Yet, by the time she concludes her brilliant discussion of plants and politics, how the Founders’ enthusiasm for nature and agriculture, for gardening expansively defined, influenced and reflected their notions about government, readers will happily succumb to her boldness. Although she occasionally discusses Franklin, Hamilton and Benjamin Rush, Wulf focuses on the first four 8 | 1 5 set-piece f e b r u a chapters r y 2 0 1 1on | presidents, offering artfully2 9composed, Washington’s intentional “horticultural union at Mount Vernon…the first truly American garden”; Adams and Jefferson’s educational, inspiring 1786 English garden tour; the model of harmonious, thriving plants from each state at Bartram’s Garden, nearby Philadelphia, which may have assuaged Constitutional Convention delegates, over half of whom were farmers or planters; Madison and Jefferson’s sly mix of botany and politics during their 1791 New England journey; and the portentous summer of ’96, which found each man tending his garden, pretending not to care about politics. As they carved gardens out of the American forest, the Founders understood their agricultural and aesthetic decisions also as political acts, fundamental to their larger task of nation building. Whether she’s addressing Washington’s plans for the new federal city, Jefferson’s unceasing renovations of his Monticello grounds, Adams’ obsession with manure, Jefferson’s ongoing argument with European naturalists over the merits of American flora and fauna or Madison’s pioneering concern for conservation and natural balance, Wulf ’s scholarship, passion and pleasing prose make for a happy combination: a history book for gardeners, a gardening book for historians. A fresh look at the Founders that charms even as it irresistibly convinces. (16 pages of color and 19 drawings. First printing of 40,000. Author tour to Atlanta, Boston, Charleston, S.C., Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Virginia, Washington, D.C.)
nonfict
children & teens GOOD LUCK, ANNA HIBISCUS!
Atinuke; Illustrator: Tobia, Lauren Kane/Miller (112 pp.) $5.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-61067-007-4 Series: Anna Hibiscus, Vol. 3
The amazing African world introduced in the first two Anna Hibiscus books has turned from lush to dry and dusty. It’s harmattan season, when the wind blows sand from the Sahara Desert, nearly Christmas time. Soon Anna Hibiscus will travel all the way to Canada to visit her other grandmother and see snow. Four linked stories describe incidents from daily life: careful dry-season bathing with buckets, family nap time, shopping for cold-weather clothes in a modern department store and a more satisfying traditional stall and the week Anna’s family seems to have forgotten her—until they produce their going-away surprises. As in other titles in the series, these gentle stories are illustrated on nearly every page with Tobia’s gray-scale sketches. Accurate cultural details will appeal to readers curious about life in an unfamiliar world. This suburban family compound in a generic sub-Saharan country reflects the author’s own Nigerian childhood. The third-person narration moves briskly, with plenty of dialogue. Novice readers may find unfamiliar dialect challenging: “In dis your compound you throw water for ground,” a peddler selling fruit outside the family home complains, pointing out that while Anna’s family uses leftover wash water to water the plants, city children have no water at all. Once again, Anna demonstrates a growing social consciousness. Readers may begin Anna’s story here; they will certainly want to go back to read earlier stories and will look forward to learning what happens next. (Fiction. 5-9)
HAVE FUN, ANNA HIBISCUS!
Atinuke; Illustrator: Tobia, Lauren Kane/Miller (112 pp.) $5.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-61067-008-1 Series: Anna Hibiscus, Vol. 4 Raised in a suburban compound among an extended African family, Anna Hibiscus travels to Canada to visit her other grandmother and see snow. These four connected stories describe her departure, her first joyful experience of snow, making friends and |
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celebrating Christmas with her grandmother. Through Anna’s eyes, cultural differences become clear. She wakes alone for the first time in her life. She misses familiar spicy foods but enjoys chocolate cereal. She struggles to put on tights and warm clothes. She fears her grandmother’s dog. At home, dogs live outside and might bite, but in Canada, Quimmiq rescues her from a snowdrift. In this thoroughly modern world, Anna calls her family on the phone, takes pictures of everything, and even packs a cooler full of snow to take home to her baby brothers. This fourth in the series adds an extra dimension to the cultural richness of these titles by making the contrast between worlds explicit. Christmas is both familiar and new, with different foods, old and new carols and one splendidly decorated tree instead of lights everywhere. The Nigerian-born author has drawn on her own childhood travel to make this experience real for young readers today. On every spread, Tobia’s sketches, black and white with gray fill, add interest and appeal. A welcome addition to the sparse collection of stories for young readers about modern African life. (Fiction. 5-9)
WOMEN HEROES OF WORLD WAR II 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue
Atwood, Kathryn J. Chicago Review (272 pp.) $19.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55652-961-0
Millions of women made invaluable contributions during World War II working as civilians on the home front, but the 26 women profiled in this collective biography served on the front lines and behind enemy lines in Europe as correspondents, couriers, propagandists, Resistance fighters, saboteurs and spies. Josephine Baker, the beautiful and glamorous African-American entertainer, was living in Paris as an expatriate when she began collecting intelligence for the French Resistance. After saying “never” to Hitler’s invitation to become a Nazi film star, Marlene Dietrich promptly renounced her German citizenship. While entertaining troops overseas with the U.S.O., Dietrich also worked with the Office of Strategic Services to undermine German morale. Lesser known but equally fascinating is Noor Inayat Khan, daughter of an Indian-born father and American mother, who spied for Britain. Atwood also includes several “Righteous Gentiles” who risked their lives rescuing and hiding Jews. The profiles are organized geographically, with Germany, Poland, France, The |
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“Axelrod emphasizes the comedy while building up to some heartfelt drama. Young readers will appreciate the author’s decision to reveal the fallibility of the adults in Abby’s life.” from your friend in fashion, abby shapiro
Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain and the United States represented. Each profile is four to six pages in length, includes a photograph of the subject and concludes with a list of books and websites for further reading. Atwood’s admiration and enthusiasm for her subjects is apparent in these engaging profiles, and readers will likely be inspired to investigate these fascinating women further. (glossary, notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)
MY CAT ISIS
Austen, Catherine Illustrator: Egger, Virginie Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55453-413-5 Less than the sum of its parts, this effort to educate young listeners about aspects of Egyptian culture while simultaneously celebrating the love of a young boy for his pet never quite comes together. Austen’s text is straightforward. A sentence on the left page describes the goddess Isis’ appearance, role and history, while the right-hand page offers an observation, usually cleverly linked, about the unnamed narrator’s cat. These provide some humor but will be appreciated more by adult readers than children. For example, “Isis and Osiris had a baby who became the sky god, Horus,” is immediately followed by “We had my Isis spayed.” Sophisticated vocabulary and concepts further distance young listeners, who may be confused by the fact that Isis and Osiris are brother and sister and have little context to understand the notion that they “gave people agriculture, law and civilization.” Cleverly designed to resemble scraps of parchment, the illustrations of the goddess are effective and evocative. Cat Isis and her owner don’t fare so well, and the artwork only reinforces the failure of the text Made from a mix of photographs, paper, paintings and pen-and-ink illustrations, textures are intriguing and proportions generally correct, but the glassy eyes give the beloved cat a slightly creepy look, while the boy winds up looking unfortunately like a burn victim. An intriguing effort that misses the mark. (Picture book. 6-8)
YOUR FRIEND IN FASHION, ABBY SHAPIRO
Axelrod, Amy Holiday House (256 pp.) $17.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2340-8
charges only a few cents for each design. But will Jackie reply to Abby? Meanwhile, Abby’s extended family creates comedy and drama, while Abby avoids her uncaring father and her apparently unfeeling mother, who appears mostly to be concerned with maintaining the traditions of their Eastern European Jewish origins. Abby also greatly regrets a nasty trick she plays on her elderly neighbors, who just might not be witches, as her Aunt believes. Axelrod emphasizes the comedy while building up to some heartfelt drama. Young readers will appreciate the author’s decision to reveal the fallibility of the adults in Abby’s life. Abby’s earnest letters to Jackie, with numerous postscripts and enclosed fashion drawings (not seen), stand out as especially sweet. Abby is an especially memorable protagonist, but all her characters vibrate with life. The 1959 suburban Massachusetts environment comes across beautifully as well. Axelrod takes the narrative up to November 1961, with no hint of the later assassination. Funny, lively, sensitive—a real winner. (Historical fiction. 8-12)
THE DOG WHO LOVED RED
Balachandran, Anitha Illustrator: Balachandran, Anitha Kane/Miller (28 pp.) $14.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-935279-83-9
Raja, an Indian family’s dog, chews everything that’s red: shawl, shoes and socks, and he and his friend, Champ (a Dalmatian), love playing with a red ball. When the ball becomes lost, he goes in hot pursuit, asking the gray pigeons and the orange kitten. He spies his red ball in Mr. Mehta’s backyard, but Mr. Mehta hates dogs— he always turns his blue hose on them. But Raja bravely slips under the violet gate, leaps onto the green cooler, slides under the silver car and gets it! When Raja returns home, he is covered with brown mud, pink netting, blue cloth and a peach sock from the assortment of colored objects he encounters in making his escape. His reward as a hero? A bath! The bright illustrations highlight each color cited, but they appear cramped on the pages. Moreover, the scratchy typeface often becomes lost against the backgrounds when it is placed over illustrations. There are better picture books on color than this Indian import—the Caldecott Honor–winning Red Sings from Treetops, by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski (2009), and the ebullient I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More, by Karen Beaumont and illustrated by David Catrow (2005), being just two. The only thing going for it is the Indian setting and names, as well as the endearing way sausage-dog Raja wags his tail. (Picture book. 4-7)
In 1959, a spunky 12-year-old decides to make some money to buy a Barbie doll by writing to her Senator’s beautiful wife, Jackie Kennedy, in this truly funny debut novel. Abby wants to be a fashion designer and has concocted some lovely ensembles for Jackie just in case Senator Kennedy decides to run for President. She 300
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“Young readers will thrill at being one step ahead of a protagonist who isn’t quite so cunning as he thinks he is.” from little mouse’s big secret
DINKIN DINGS AND THE FRIGHTENING THINGS
Bass, Guy Illustrator: Williamson, Pete Grosset & Dunlap (128 pp.) $12.99 | $4.99 paperback original March 1, 2011 978-0-448-45432-0 paper 978-0-448-45431-3 Series: Dinkin Dings, Vol. 2 Young Dinkin Dings is afraid of everything—from the usual scary things to the inexplicable (“trees, peas, knees, fleas”). When a new kid moves in next door, he is convinced that the innocent-looking girl in the “100% Pony Crazy” T-shirt is something to be feared—a “flesh-eating alien space zombie from beyond horror!” Yes, Dinkin knows that little Molly Coddle and her family are bent on rapacious, braineating, zombie-creating terror. The only things that don’t scare Dinkin are his helpers—creatures that he summons from under his bed each night. Perhaps it’s because these Frightening Things are just as scared as Dinkin is. Though amusing details, like the statistics at the beginning of each chapter (“Chance of rain: 27% / Chance of world ending: 65%”), and over-the-top exaggeration should move the narrative along, the plot drags as readers wait for the Dinkin to find out the truth about his neighbor. Frequent pen-and-ink illustrations of bug-eyed children and goofily retro parents remind children that this is not really supposed to be a scary story, making the surprise ending even more of a surprise. Plays on words, exaggerated fears and an unexpected allergy add up to a funny book for new readers of the very patient variety who like something just a little bit scary. (Fiction. 7-10)
LITTLE MOUSE’S BIG SECRET
Battut, Éric Illustrator: Battut, Éric Sterling (32 pp.) $12.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4027-7462-1
Young readers will thrill at being one step ahead of a protagonist who isn’t quite so cunning as he thinks he is. A tiny mouse finds a bright red fruit approximately the size of his head. An apple? No matter, it’s clearly a “delicious treat”—one he wants all for himself. To keep it a secret, he hides it in the ground. Pals arrive—Squirrel, Bird, Turtle, Hedgehog, Rabbit and Frog, all roughly the same size as Mouse—to ask what he’s hiding. He replies to each, “It’s my secret, and I’ll never tell.” Little Mouse faces to the left as he speaks with each friend; behind him, unobserved by anyone except readers, something is happening. A sprout… a sapling… page by page, the fruit that Mouse accidentally planted grows into a tree, which blossoms and bears more fruit. Mouse, still facing left, stands beneath the tree he hasn’t noticed, guarding his secret with total naïveté—until the fruit all falls down. Mouse doesn’t mind; now everyone can partake. Battut’s |
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oil paintings are a wonder of scale: The wee, delicate animals cluster on the bottom right side of a vast spread of calmingly pale, luminescent yellow. Even the tree at its tallest stays tranquilly centered mid-right, leaving plenty of creamy yellow background to showcase the largeness of the world from a child’s-eye view and how easy it is to focus on the most important thing in that world. (Picture book. 2-5)
IN LIKE A LION OUT LIKE A LAMB
Bauer, Marion Dane Illustrator: McCully, Emily Arnold Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 21, 2011 978-0-8234-2238-8 In Bauer’s capable hands, the age-old simile of March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb is made quite literal. Readers follow as, one after the other, they visit the house of one little boy. “March comes with a roar. / He rattles your windows / and scratches at your door. / He turns snow to mud, / then tromps across your floor.” The lion wreaks utter havoc—until the day when the soft breeze and new tree buds cause the lion to sneeze. Riding the wave of that sneeze, the lamb comes prancing in, ushering in all things spring. And that lion? Is he going to lurk about and cause trouble? No, his rumbles are snores now, and he’ll sleep away the days until next March. Bauer cleverly uses her transition sneeze to set up the possibility of a sequel—summer bugs ride in on the lamb’s mighty “A-AA-A-CHOO!” While the text provides the skeleton, McCully’s pen, ink and watercolor illustrations truly bring the old song to life. Her lion is a wonderful cross between a fierce foe, threatening with his teeth and claws, and a party pooper, making a mess and spoiling any good times outdoors. Meanwhile, the lamb is a perfect ball of snow-white fluff. Spare backgrounds during the lion’s reign echo the bleakness of the weather and change to light blues and greens as the lamb takes charge. A good addition to the spring shelf, it is sure to find its way, roaring and bleating, to classrooms studying similes. (Picture book. 4-8)
THE GOLDEN GHOST
Bauer, Marion Dane Illustrator: Ferguson, Peter Random (96 pp.) $12.99 | PLB: $15.99 | March 22, 2011 978-0-375-86649-4 PLB 978-0-375-96649-1 This ghost story by Bauer is a companion chapter book to her previous titles, The Blue Ghost, The Red Ghost and The Green Ghost (2005, 2008, 2008) and features an animal ghost—a golden dog. Out of boredom, Delsie and pal Todd decide to visit the supposedly haunted houses that were abandoned when the old cement mill shut down. |
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They find one door that opens and evidence of someone living there, which spooks them. When they see an old man walking in the road, they know he’s the one. By his side is a sparkling, golden shape, the old man’s dead dog, now a ghost, but Delsie is the only one who can see it. She has longed for a dog but can’t have one because her father is allergic to animals (up to and including groundhogs, as his tired, old joke goes). Opening with the dog’s thoughts as she paces waiting for someone to see her, Bauer sets up the premise, and, of course, in the end the ghost dog comes to stay with Delsie. Credibility is strained, but kids reading this short chapter series won’t mind. (It is one of the long-standing Stepping Stones series of early readers and chapter books.) Each of these “color” ghost stories features different characters and gimmicks, sure to make fans want more. Could purple be next? (Ghost story. 7-9)
NO SLEEP FOR THE SHEEP
Beaumont, Karen Illustrator: Urbanovic, Jackie Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-15-204969-0
BLOOD AND FLOWERS
Poor sheep just wants to sleep. Yawning big yawns, his bedtime ritual begins on the copyright page as he brushes his teeth, grabs his teddy and heads out to the big red barn. But just as he closes his eyes, “There came a loud QUACK / at the door, at the door, / and the sheep couldn’t sleep any more.” Duck is making a racket! Sheep ushers duck inside and admonishes him with a stern, “Shhh! Not a peep! Go to sleep!” and the two snuggle in for the night. But then… “There came a loud OINK / at the door, at the door, and the / sheep couldn’t sleep any more.” One after another, a parade of farm animals interrupts sheep’s slumber. As each animal boisterously crashes through the barn door, the bedraggled sheep, with wool askew and hoof to head, becomes more and more miserable. Beaumont’s playful, repetitive text, with its loud animal sounds, will have children chanting along to the beat. In more intimate sharings, readers with a careful eye can spot the shadow of the next animal, along with a certain tiny, feathered friend who just may make the loudest sound of all. (Picture book. 3-6)
ASK ELIZABETH
Berkley, Elizabeth Putnam (240 pp.) $19.99 | $15.99 paperback original | March 23, 2011 978-0-399-25448-2 paper 978-0-399-25449-9 Actress Berkley (Saved by the Bell) tries her hand at advice for young women in a question-and-answer format. Culling from workshops of the same title that she has conducted for the past four years, discussion is centered around a grouping of 302
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topics: self-image, romantic relationships, friends and bullies, family issues and, finally, a section on mental health and defining self. Mimicking the look of a scrapbook, chapters include suggestions from the author and feature scraps of paper with handwritten inquiries from girls who attended the workshops. Also on offer are honest and thoughtful testimonials written by teens themselves about the various subjects and the occasional blurb from a professional. Collages of images and hand-drawn designs decorate the pages and add to the informal, confessional tone. Berkley maintains a chatty, direct voice throughout that contributes to the accessibility of the work but may turn some readers off. Often urging readers to think of her almost as if they know her by using phrases such as, “Please know that I fully honor, accept and love every single one of you,” or exhorting girls to be themselves because, “Trust me, [the real you]’s pretty amazing!” may leave the more skeptical feeling that the familiarity established in the workshops doesn’t translate authentically to the page. References to the author’s website are included. (Self-help. 12-18)
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Blubaugh, Penny HarperTeen (352 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $17.89 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-172862-4 PLB 978-0-06-172863-1 As in Serendipity Market (2009), Blubaugh blends the magical and mundane into an original fantasy, told here by an 18-year-old who finds a home among an eclectic group of human and faerie folk. With a “penchant for dropping out of school” and “a mile-wide love of Shakespeare,” Persia left her “drugged-out, fey-bashing parents” a year ago to join The Outlaw Puppet Troupe, known for its fringe, slightly subversive underground performances. Finding The Outlaws was “like coming home to the place” she’d “been looking for forever.” Persia’s unidentified world is rife with illegal pixie-dust dealing, a tumbling economy and environmental troubles. Feyphobic authorities blame the faerie for everything bad, and The Outlaws are prime suspects with a faerie puppet-maker wielding magic behind the scenes. When their gay artistic director is subpoenaed on false charges by Major, his corrupt, vindictive ex-lover, The Outlaws flee their world of blood and flowers into Faerie, a practically perfect place. Here they assimilate with local faeries, trolls and griffins, until Major appears to deliver an ultimatum. To avoid becoming “a lost bunch of misfits,” The Outlaws stage what could be their final production. While the denouement feels anticlimactic, atmospheric language, arresting “culture mash-up,” unique characters, an alluring overlap of fantasy and reality and strong themes of family and friendship create a provocative read. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
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“A visual and thematic stunner.” from pablo neruda: poet of the people
PABLO NERUDA Poet of the People
Brown, Monica Illustrator: Paschkis, Julie Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 29, 2011 978-0-8050-9198-4
More than a heartwarming portrait of Chile’s most revered poet, this splendid tribute to Pablo Neruda animates his global appeal with a visceral immediacy capable of seducing readers of any age. Brown’s spare descriptions of the little boy who “loved wild things wildly and quiet things quietly” and grew to write poems about “velvet cloth the color of the sea,” contrasts wonderfully with Paschkis’ lush, earth-toned paintings that teem with the florid stream of words and images populating the inner world of the budding poetic consciousness. The word-laden illustrations, sporting names of authors in tree bark or swirling adjectives in the hollow of the moon, are a constant throughout the volume, spilling from Spanish to English, sound to sense—“arc oro orange azure azul ample apple simple timber timbre…”—and back again, with as great a depiction of creative processing as one’s likely to see. At pains to depict Neruda above all as “a poet of the people,” Brown encourages young readers to notice the suggestive world around them and then render it for others through language. She moves seamlessly from describing Neruda’s poetic artistry to political activism, showing how an appreciation for the stones of Chile “tumbling down the mountaintops” could lead to his understanding of their value in “the hands of the stonecutters.” A visual and thematic stunner. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book. 4-11)
THE BLOOMSWELL DIARIES
Buitendag, Louis L. Kane/Miller (272 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-935279-82-2
Steampunk elements, a quest by a boy for his disappeared parents (who are actually British secret agents) and a desperate effort to rescue his older sister from sinister forces combine in this briskly paced adventure story set in an indeterminate past, most likely the early 20th century. Benjamin Sebastian Bloomswell has been brought from his home in London by his parents, who are going off on yet another “business trip,” to stay with an uncle in New York City for his safety. Things get ugly and dangerous quickly: News of his parents’ apparent death abroad hits the newspapers; Uncle Lucas is dispatched in a hurry; and Ben is kidnapped by nefarious goons and placed in an unsavory “orphanage,” from which he soon escapes. Risky, adventure-filled escapades ensue, and Ben eventually and improbably makes his way his sister in Switzerland, who is equally in danger. While much that occurs throughout |
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is exciting, many plot details are wrapped up too neatly and too quickly, and many interesting points don’t seem to coalesce. Familiar tropes and a big but contrived surprise at the end—siblings off on a thrilling quest, unknown malevolent characters, the mysterious fate of the children’s parents and a brief reference from out of nowhere to a murky scientific experiment lurking in the wings—will appeal to readers, particularly undemanding ones. (Steampunk. 9-12)
HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE
Bunting, Eve Illustrator: Fraser, Mary Ann Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59078-768-7
Bunting is perhaps best known for her skirmishes with heavy weather—racism, riots, homelessness, war—but that is not to deny her talent for pure whimsy, and that is what she delivers here. “Hey diddle diddle, the cat plays the fiddle,” starts the classic, tomfool nursery rhyme. Enter the cow, but it’s not jumping over the moon, it “plays the silver trombone.” Then Bunting starts over, with a twist: “Hey diddle dum, the whale bangs the drum, / the seal’s on the big saxophone”; “Hey diddle dumpet, the camel blows trumpet, / the elephant’s awesome on bass.” Fraser’s accompanying artwork is cheery and saturated, the colors running from cool to hot, and the animals presented in comical two-page spreads, some discombobulated, some hep cats—sunglasses, a fez—even when they aren’t cats. Then a young boy enters the picture, and there is a radical shift in perspective, a drawing back to show that the animals are part of a music-box band ensemble, a richly populated, wind-up toy orchestra that’s as visually playful as a fancy birthday cake. Not the least of the music made here will be in a sing-along read-aloud, with accompanying guffaws to mark the time. (Picture book. 2-5)
MY DOG JACK IS FAT
Bunting, Eve Illustrator: Rex, Michael Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5809-8 Good intentions don’t compensate for a heavy-handed approach in this latest effort to teach kids about the perils of obesity. Bunting’s brief text plays out primarily in simple declarative sentences that appear as dialogue, thought balloons and the occasional description of straightforward action. When freckle-faced Carson takes his dog to the vet, she points out that Jack is too heavy and prescribes more exercise and less food. For some inexplicable reason, while Jack slims down, Carson bulks up on pizza, soda pop and the like, so that by the end of the month he’s the one in need of intervention. Rex’s |
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“Thoughtful, challenging reading for teens on the cusp of adulthood.” from the kissing game: short stories
flat, cartoon-style illustrations emphasize the blunt, unadorned style of the text but do little to flesh out the cardboard characters. Bright colors and whimsical details, such as Carson’s bonepatterned shirt or Jack’s ridiculous romp on a treadmill, do add some visual humor but not enough to lighten the overall effect. Carson’s sad self-examination as he’s dressed only in tightywhiteys seems decidedly overdone, while his wordless conversion to a bike-riding calorie burner on the final page belies the truth suggested in earlier illustrations—that fast food bears much of the blame for the current epidemic of obesity. Skip this didactic drivel and skip rope instead. (Picture book. 4-7)
PRINCESS PEEPERS PICKS A PET
Calvert, Pam Illustrator: Mourning, Tuesday Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5815-9 It’s safe to say that Peepers curtsies to a different drummer at the Royal Academy for Perfect Princesses. She fails to conform to the dainty interests the other girls enjoy. The students follow social mores to a T, but Peepers crashes the tea party on her skateboard and dangles upside down to strengthen her posture. When the students plan a pet show, Peepers hopes to find a suitable selection; unfortunately, her potential entries exude too much slime or bear too many appendages to be popular choices. As in her first, self-titled adventure (2008), the absence of Peepers’ glasses leads to disastrous results. She falls upon a fantastic creature she mistakenly identifies as a dirty, firebreathing, winged unicorn, which she brings us her entry in the competition. Peepers’ quirks reveal a sympathetic character; her internal musings and wistful dialogue demonstrate her longing for acceptance. Buttressed by details (“watching dragonflies buzz always helped her think”), Peepers’ personality comes through loud and clear. The emphasis here is on social differences instead of physical ones; the royal waifs’ uniformly slim stature does little to promote acceptance of varied body images. Digital painting and graphite merge with bold collage images to glossy effect, and elongated limbs provide a whimsical nuance. It’s a light regal romp, forgoing the need for any extra pomp or circumstance. (Picture book. 4-7)
GLAMOUR
Carlson, Melody Zondervan (194 pp.) $9.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-310-71790-4 Series: On the Runway, Vol. 5
on the dynamic and fast-paced world of fashion. While older sister Paige thrives in the spotlight and exudes confidence, the younger Erin struggles sometimes to reconcile her worldly life with her strong Christian faith. Many of Erin’s roles—her role in the show as well as in her relationships with her friends, family and coworkers—become a little more defined in this volume. Talk of clothes, accessories and fashion-world intrigue abounds, but it is overshadowed by more personal dramas, including a coworker’s battle with cancer and a clash of morals between Erin and Paige, brought on by Paige’s decision to allow her fiancé to sleep over at their apartment despite Erin’s protests. Carlson’s plot intimates that while Erin’s strident opposition to premarital sex might not be popular, it is certainly prudent, since negative consequences befall Erin’s sexually active best friend as well as her sister Paige. Though Erin may know how she feels about sex, there are definitely some moral gray areas having to do with honesty, loyalty and emotional intimacy that she contends with here. Good, clean, didactic fun for readers who like their LA Candy with a strong Christian flavor. (Christian chick lit. YA)
THE KISSING GAME Short Stories
Chambers, Aidan Amulet/Abrams (224 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8109-9716-5
British author and Printz Award winner Chambers (Postcards from No Man’s Land, 2002) returns with a provocative and varied collection of shorts for teen readers. The author isn’t one to shy away from the more sinister aspects of life, nor is he heavy-handed in his treatment of them. Touching on a wide scope of topics, his spare, succinct prose prods readers out of complacency and gets them thinking critically on a varied number of issues: death, sex and violence, among them. Whether asking readers to ponder the meaning of life and religion in the almost Beckettlike “The God Debate,” re-evaluate their own attitudes toward the planet and our increasingly use-once-and-dispose attitude in “Thrown Out” or consider the harsh realities of human trafficking that permeates all walks of life with “Sanctuary,” he introduces readers into the chaotic and often ugly world of adulthood. His sophisticated yet simple style is perfectly suited for an exploration of the new form of flash fictions—multi-genre drabbles that top out at 1,000 words—as well as standard short-story form. Thoughtful, challenging reading for teens on the cusp of adulthood. (Short stories. 15 & up)
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SIX SHEEP SIP THICK SHAKES And Other Tricky Tongue Twisters Cleary, Brian P. Illustrator: Mack, Steve Millbrook (32 pp.) $16.96 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58013-585-6
Readers who take this on should prepare their tongues for a wicked tangling… and their stomach muscles for a workout. A quick look at some of Cleary’s sentences can be deceiving—seemingly simple syllables are truly tongue twisting when read aloud: “The water in Flo’s Inn flows in frozen.” Others, however, look tricky right from the start: “Few knew that Mr. Froo flew in the fleshy, freshly fried fish from Florida.” From the silly and ridiculous to the everyday, this tongue-twister collection covers a wide variety of topics. Ever the educator, the author’s backmatter includes some great tips for creating tongue twisters, breaking down for readers just what makes them so difficult to say. Mack’s brightly colored madcap cartoon illustrations match the tongue-in-cheek humor of the text. “The ghostly moans were mostly groans” pictures a child ghost wildly protesting having to rake the leaves while his unimpressed father stands by, arms crossed. And it’s tough to beat the silliness of slightly cross-eyed and buck-toothed men in sandals and togas playing basketball: “See the Greek geeks as they shoot three free throws.” Not for the faint of heart; tongues should really be limbered up before tackling these. (Picture book. 5-10)
JOB SITE
Clement, Nathan Illustrator: Clement, Nathan Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59078-769-4 In his debut, Drive (2008), Clement profiled a single 18-wheeler and its driver; here he explores the ever-popular realm of construction trucks. Unlike many similarly themed books, which focus on humans, this one details the part each truck plays in a single job, with the final spread showing a completed park. Throughout, the pointed finger and other hand signs of the African-American “Boss” direct the trucks to their respective duties. “Boss says, ‘Pour a slab.’ / And the mixer swings its trough and pours cement.” About half the time children are given the opportunity to guess which truck will be needed for the job before a page turn reveals the answer. The highlighted trucks include a bulldozer, excavator, loader, dump truck, compactor, mixer and crane. While the text does not rhyme, it has a welcome simplicity that suits younger readers just as well, even as it uses real vocabulary for the trucks and their parts. The computer-rendered illustrations, while sometimes seeming flat in perspective, nonetheless have crisp, clean lines with bold, rich |
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colors and textures appropriate to earth, gravel and cement. The large format of the book itself, as well as alternating views of long shots and close-ups of trucks makes this a good choice for group sharing. Pair this with Sally Sutton’s Roadwork (2008) for a similar treatment of a different job site. (Picture book. 2-6)
A TOUCH MORTAL
Clifford, Leah Greenwillow/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $17.99 | PLB: $18.89 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-200499-4 PLB 978-0-06-200500-7 An otherwise intriguing twist on the paranormal is let down by forced melodrama and inexplicable secrets. Goth girl Eden—ignored by her mother, forgotten by her friends— is contemplating suicide when she meets the boy of her dreams. Luscious Az makes life worth living, and Eden spends an idyllic summer with Az and his gay best friend, Gabriel. Unbeknownst to Eden, Az is an angel, or at least used to be one. Now he’s half-Fallen, caught between heaven and hell, holding onto Upstairs through painful effort and the assistance of the still-holy Gabriel. Az’s enemy, Luke (three guesses as to his true identity), wants to drag Az fully into the ranks of the Fallen, and he will surely torture Eden if he finds her. But Eden’s no ordinary girl. After an apparent tragedy breaks her spirit, Eden becomes a Sider, an undead suicide non-survivor, wandering the boroughs of New York in Goth finery. She makes both friends and enemies among the Siders (although the motivation of both is thoroughly unclear) and gains notoriety as a sort of afterlife Jack Kevorkian, helping failed teen suicides to a more successful death. Eden struggles to survive with the help of her potty-mouthed celestial posse. Those enamored enough of troubled-but-cute heroes won’t mind the chaotic prose, plot holes and unlikable side characters—and will be thrilled by the setup for volume two. (Fantasy. YA)
MATHEMAGIC! Number Tricks
Colgan, Lynda Illustrator: Kurisu, Jane Kids Can (40 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55453-425-8 Stun friends and family members by guessing secret numbers and doing painless long division. Dice and card tricks and finger multiplication are among the fascinating tricks potential mathemagicians will learn to perform. But Colgan goes beyond the ordinary by giving an in-depth, easily understandable explanation of the math behind each trick, as well as any history that might be applicable, too. Not only will readers learn how to multiply large numbers in their heads, they will learn why this trick works and that the early Egyptians used the very same method. Prime |
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numbers, Napier’s bones, division dowels, the binary number system and factoring are just a few areas they will explore. Kids won’t stop with just learning the tricks—the emphasis is on performing them, and the author does a great job of giving tips for a magical performance that is not only believable but entertaining as well. Backmatter includes a glossary, but the language used in the definitions is more advanced than that used in the text, and the terms used within the entries are not always themselves defined. Kurisu’s illustrations emphasize the performance side of mathemagic, showing potential performers how to successfully set up or follow through with specific tricks. Colgan makes math cool, and that speaks for itself. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
SUBWAY GIRL
Converse, P.J. HarperTeen (224 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $17.89 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-157514-3 PLB 978-0-06-157515-0 Chan Tze Man, aka Simon Chan, is falling behind in English classes at his Hong Kong high school, and he decides to leave school, even though he knows that he won’t graduate without passing the final exam. Riding the subway home, he ponders the fate of dropouts: “Maybe they were rounded up by their families and deposited in landfills. Or maybe they were just taken away and shot after answering one final grammar question incorrectly.” Simon finds the nerve to strike up a conversation with the mysterious Subway Girl, who so far has ignored him and his friends. She turns out to be a Chinese-American girl named Amy who only speaks English. Simon’s interest in Amy and her need for someone to confide in help them overcome the language barrier, and through halting conversations and e-mails, they find ways to support each other. Amy’s last encounter with her ex-boyfriend ended with his lying to her about using a condom, and the story takes a serious turn as Simon helps Amy obtain a cheap abortion in neighboring China. The light narrative tone in much of the book is often just the right touch; other times there’s enough of a hint of the author’s purpose—writing a novel in English for his students in Hong Kong—to interrupt the flow of what is otherwise a story with depth. (Fiction. 14 & up)
WHAT DOES THE PRESIDENT LOOK LIKE?
Cook, Jane Hampton Illustrator: Ziskie, Adam Kane/Miller (36 pp.) $16.99 | February 21, 2011 978-1-935279-63-1
Highlighting different presidents and moving chronologically from Washington to Obama, Cook explains how old 306
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techniques and new technologies have allowed people to view the president. Washington had his portrait painted, and Lincoln was the first to be photographed, but political cartoons, stereographs, newsreels and now YouTube have all brought the highest United States political official visually to the people. Conversational text describes each innovation and how it affected different presidents and even history. Information is broken up into three boxes, one spotlighting the president and technique used to display his image, one to further explain the technique and one for “Surprising Facts.” The format, however, is clumsy and sometimes confusing. Content assumes some knowledge of the presidents and history. Muted illustrations show three children moving along in time, wearing period clothing and engaging in historical events. The line drawings are fluid and curvy, giving people long-legged strides and a retro ’70s look. Presidents’ images are not always shown or depicted clearly, and some examples of the innovations described, such as cartoons and campaign posters, are noticeably missing. Thumbnail illustrations of all of the presidential portraits do not depict a clear likeness. Backmatter includes list of online resources and websites for select presidential libraries and museums. An interesting concept that misses the mark in execution. (Informational picture book. 7-10)
CHEESIE MACK IS NOT A GENIUS OR ANYTHING
Cotler, Steve Illustrator: McCauley, Adam Random (240 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 | March 22, 2011 978-0-375-86347-7 PLB 978-0-375-96437-4 Ronald “Cheesie” Mack and his best friend, Georgie, are about to graduate fifth grade and embark on the best summer ever, which will include, but not be limited to, making points in a private battle against Cheesie’s evil older sister June, hanging out in their treehouse and, most importantly, summer camp in Maine. Summer’s only a day away, and things already seem to be off to a great start when Georgie finds an old necklace and a 1909 penny stashed in their basement. Then bad news hits big: Georgie’s dad’s been laid off, and they can’t afford camp. Cheesie decides to be a best friend and stay home too, so summer’s looking lame-ish. First, they have to get through the boring graduation ceremony; Georgie (as usual) has a plan to spice it up. When a possibility arises to get the money for camp, the boys have to decide what course of action is right. Readers will be happy to learn that Cotler’s debut is the first in a new series. Cheesie chattily narrates his own story; his voice rings true, and the other characters are a gently quirky, appealing lot. His periodic invitations to read posts on or add stories to the CheesieMack.com website will hook denizens of the digital generation, but doing so isn’t vital to enjoying the ride. No art was seen, but the final book will have many fun illustrations (according to Cheesie) from Time Warp Trio illustrator McCauley. (Fiction. 8-12) kirkusreviews.com
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“...those families that discover it will find it a refreshing change from glossier, louder American picture books. A sort of visual haiku.” from seasons
SEASONS
Crausaz, Anne Illustrator: Crausaz, Anne Kane/Miller (48 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-61067-006-7 This French import features a blackhaired girl who experiences a simple, sensory progress through the seasons. The few sentences per spread are directed to readers. “Can you hear that? You’re not scared, are you? It’s just a summer storm... / the air is warm, but the water is cold.” Each sense is engaged, in summer, in addition to hearing storms and feeling water, readers see fireflies, smell tomato and basil in the garden and taste “sand in your mouth!” The graphically designed, flat-dimension illustrations are both attractive and subtly effective in pairing the senses with the seasons as the girl enjoys the special moments of nature year-round. The simple shapes and graceful lines play with perspective and contrast to enhance the sense of movement while retaining a unity of aesthetic. A sturdier binding than the paper-covered boards would be better for library use, but those families that discover it will find it a refreshing change from glossier, louder American picture books. A sort of visual haiku. (Picture book. 4-7)
THE TROUBLE WITH CHICKENS
Cronin, Doreen Illustrator: Cornell, Kevin Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (128 pp.) $14.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-121532-2 Popular farmyard chronicler Cronin (Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, illustrated by Betsy Lewin, 2000, etc.) makes the jump to middle-grade fiction in this faux–hard-boiled mystery featuring talking animals. Her deadpan humor is much in evidence as she describes the circumstances under which retired search-and-rescue dog J.J. Tully undertakes the case of the missing chick. Puns abound, and J.J. is definitely not quite as clever as he believes himself to be, allowing readers to gently laugh at as well as with him. Sophisticated vocabulary and a complicated plot suggest the older range of readers as the most likely audience, but frequent illustrations and a relatively large font should make the story accessible to the younger end as well. Cornell’s black-and-white drawings extend both the humor and the action. In some pictures J.J. is slightly reminiscent of Scooby-Doo, another canine sleuth, while in others he is both distinctive and dogged in his determination to solve the puzzle. The chickens, mother and four chicks, are seriously silly looking and utterly adorable, which suits their surprisingly rounded characters just right. Finding out how “Vince the Funnel” fits in, whether J.J. is being double-crossed by his client and how the climactic rescue will be resolved should keep readers engaged |
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while Cronin’s constant word-play will keep them giggling. Fast and funny. (Comic mystery. 8-11)
TOO MANY BLOOMS
Daly, Catherine Scholastic (192 pp.) $5.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-545-21450-6 Series: Petal Pushers, Vol. 1 Delphinium Bloom loves helping out in her grandparents’ flower shop in their small New Hampshire town. When they leave the business in her parents’ hands for three months, Del is determined to help her disorganized family succeed in the venture. But her parents and three younger sisters, twins Rose and Aster, plus little Poppy, have their own, sometimes weird, ideas. Meanwhile, at school Del has her hands full coping with her first crush and her “arch nemesis” Ashley, the personification of snooty, richgirl meanness. Emotionally flat, despite lavish use of exclamation marks, the book’s meager allotment of suspense flows from Del’s boy worries—does crush-object Hamilton prefer Ashley to her?—and business worries, which carry more emotional weight. Can the shop land a job providing flowers for a huge wedding (the bride is Ashley’s wealthy cousin) or will it lose out to the new flower shop in the mall with its high-tech bells and whistles? However, the transparently unoriginal concept, characters, plot complications and resolution of this cliché-fest feel recycled from other, better novels. It’s hard to care about a product that no more resembles genuine storytelling than a bouquet of artificial flowers does the real thing. (Fiction. 8-12)
FANDANGO STEW
Davis, David Illustrator: Galbraith, Ben Sterling (40 pp.) $14.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4027-6527-8
In this flavorful Wild West version of the classic “Stone Soup” tale, penniless Slim and his grandson, Luis, ride into the town of Skinflint, where, in the face of tremendous odds, they manage to rustle up a delicious stew with only one bean, inveigle in participation with his repetition of, “Chili’s good, so is barbecue, but nothing’s FINER than FANDANGO STEW!” The toe-tapping refrain repeats in two- to 47-part harmony, as the sheriff who wants to run them out of town, the scoffing mayor and the shopkeeper become curious enough to let the two loco hombres make stew for the whole town with just one fandango bean. As the curious townspeople, including the teacher and schoolchildren and the Skinflint Culture Club ladies, gather around, each volunteers ingredients, and each joins in what becomes a fandango stew |
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“Along with making worthy points about the benefits of honesty… [Finlay] introduces a young hero who is refreshingly oblivious to gender expectations—bravo.” from little croc’s purse
fiesta and “the best dang stew shindig” ever seen. The chorus of voices repeating the refrain begs to be read aloud with audience participation, and Slim’s parting advice that “Any bean makes a fine fandango stew. Just add generosity and kindness,” hits the spot. Galbraith’s mixed-media illustrations brim with humor, and design elements such as old-timey poster display type and colorful bandana endpapers provide just the right accompaniment to the folksy tale. (Picture book. 3-10)
TEN MILES PAST NORMAL
Dowell, Frances O’Roark Atheneum (224 pp.) $16.99 | March 22, 2011 978-1-4169-9585-2
A quirky coming-of-age for girls ready to discover their cool aunt’s stash of vintage copies of Sassy. In her first months of high school, Janie Gorman is discovering the unfortunate, not at all subtle differences between offbeat and off-putting as the daughter of a rather dilettantish farming family. Sure, she sews her own up-cycled clothes, creating skirts “made out of an old pair of jeans and some killer fabric scraps,” and embraces milking the farm’s goats, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline. But to catch the bus on time, Janie occasionally forgets to remove the hay from her hair or scrape the goat dung from her shoes, and it’s getting her noticed, in a feeling-forced-to-hide-in-the-library-during-lunch kind of way. Encouraged by the sweet, thoughtful and utterly misnamed Monster Monroe to “live large” and embrace her whole, idiosyncratic self, Janie and her best friend, straight-laced and superacademic Sarah, go all-in. They hurl themselves into a project highlighting local heroes of the Civil Rights Era, learn to play bass and accordion and outgrow a hopeless shared crush on hunky jerk Jeremy Fitch. That’s a lot of ground to cover, and the plot occasionally teeters under the weight of its many developments and down-home secondary characters, but Janie’s voice— anxious, funny and winning—holds it all together as she finds and takes her place at school and on the farm. (Fiction. 11-14)
BANJO OF DESTINY
Fagan, Cary Illustrator: Demirel, Selçuk Groundwood (128 pp.) $14.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55498-085-7
an exclusive private school, plus a full extracurricular schedule of etiquette instruction, ballroom dancing, painting, golf and, most hated of all, piano lessons. Being mediocre or worse at everything he tries, his life is a misery. But then a chance encounter with a banjo player lights up a fascination with both the instrument and its music. After his pretentious parents strenuously forbid the purchase of such an item, he sets out to make one in secret from a cookie tin and other found ingredients, and then to buckle down and teach himself to play. Tucking basic information about banjo construction and history into his easygoing narrative, Fagan makes his budding musician work realistically hard on his project, eventually achieve some musical chops with support from both adult allies and a smart, free-spirited classmate and finally bring his astonished parents around with an impromptu set of classic folksongs. Occasional spot-art still-lifes done in pen and ink add formal notes to a lowkey charmer. (Fiction. 10-12)
LITTLE CROC’S PURSE
Finlay, Lizzie Illustrator: Finlay, Lizzie Eerdmans (32 pp.) $14.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8028-5392-9
Demonstrating the many rewards of Right Action, Little Croc fends off his importunate friends and resolutely hauls a large coin purse he’s discovered under a bush to the police station—past an oh-so-tempting shoe store, a lemonade vendor, a charity worker and Murdock, a menacing punk. In rushes the owner a little later to rescue a prized locket and then give Little Croc everything else! Unconcerned that it’s a purse, and covered in pink flowers to boot, the delighted reptile adopts the fashion accessory and divides the cash inside into “spend,” “share” and “save” piles. He then treats himself to a lemonade and a coveted pair of red cowboy boots, makes a donation to the charity, buys gifts for all his buddies (and even Murdock), then goes home to drop the last coin in his piggy bank and dream of saving for a matching cowboy hat. Placing her all-croc cast in an upscale village setting and tucking in some visual jokes (the lemonade comes from “Croc Monsieur’s” café), Finlay gives the episode a bright and breezy look. Along with making worthy points about the benefits of honesty, modeling responsible financial behavior and even somehow managing to keep Little Croc from coming off as a goody-goody, she introduces a young hero who is refreshingly oblivious to gender expectations—bravo. (Picture book. 6-8)
Battling parental expectations and low self-esteem, a lad finds his bliss in building and learning to play a banjo. Born to unspeakable wealth thanks to his once-poor parents’ invention of a high-tech dental-floss dispenser, Jeremiah leads a thoroughly regimented life—shuttling between his palatial mansion and 308
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SHOUT! SHOUT IT OUT!
BENITO RUNS
Fleming, Denise Illustrator: Fleming, Denise Henry Holt (40 pp.) $16.99 | March 29, 2011 978-0-8050-9237-0
In a similar vein to The Everything Book (2000), Fleming papers her pages with standard elements in preschool curricula and encourages kids to shout out what they know. Beginning with numbers, she moves on to letters and colors, presented as balloons. Names of common pets, farm animals and modes of transportation round out the text. Throughout it all, an amusing little mouse provides some comic relief and gives young children the opportunity to scour the illustrations to find him. One of the final pages presents all the letters, numbers and words on a single spread, allowing “mouse” to show off all that he knows. Labels in a simple type encourage children to make the connection between the pictures and the writing. Filled with vibrant colors and patterns, Fleming’s illustrations are peopled with a multicultural cast of rosy-cheeked, wide-eyed preschoolers with huge mouths open wide to shout. Created by pulp painting, which is a method of making paper by pouring colored fibers through stencils, here complemented by paper collage and a variety of drawing media, the artwork begs return examination. From the opening sentences to the mouse’s bow at the end, this has storytime written all over it: “Everybody loves to shout. So, if you know it, SHOUT it out! Ready. Set. GO!” (Picture book. 2-6)
Fontes, Justine Darby Creek (104 pp.) $7.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-7613-6165-7 Series: Surviving Southside Each book in the high-interest/lowreading-level Surviving Southside series is narrated by a different student at Texas’ racially diverse Southside High School. Here, Benito’s dad comes home from the war in Iraq. The family has been looking forward to his return, but he now has PTSD and is prone to loud, embarrassing outbursts. Ultimately, Benito leaves the house on an ill-fated bus journey. Plan B, in which a drunken first sexual experience leads to an unplanned pregnancy, tells a familiar story but comes to an open-ended resolution. In Recruited, star quarterback Kadeem faces a moral dilemma: Accept the scholarships, academic string-pulling and cheerleaders’ attention offered by Teller College’s recruiting coach, or blow the whistle on Teller’s illegal recruiting practices. Each book is straightforward, with action beginning immediately and every detail moving the story ahead. Resolutions come quickly (each volume hovers just around 100 pages) and are sometimes unsatisfyingly tidy. Occasionally, a relevant detail is left out—it is never explained, for instance, why NCAA recruiting rules forbid aggressive tactics—but overall, these are solid, simple stories. For reluctant readers and fans of the Bluford High series. (Fiction. 12-14)
SHOES FOR ME!
A PRAYER IN SPRING
Fliess, Sue Illustrator: Laughead, Michael Marshall Cavendish (24 pp.) $12.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5825-8 Few things in a preschooler’s life are more exciting than getting a new pair of shoes. Little Hippo needs new shoes and has a plethora of choices among styles, colors and purposes. There are shoes with jewels and glitter, shoes that zip or tie, shoes that clatter or light up, shoes for summer, basketball, ballet or tap. Some are just about perfect, but mom says, “No, not at that price.” Mom suggests little ducky shoes, but this fashion-conscious hippo turns up her snout. “Finding shoes could take all week!” Confused and exhausted, Little Hippo is almost ready to give up until she sees “way up high. / One last pair I have to try” and finds the perfect fit with “colored laces, stripes and spots. / glowing, blinking polka dots.” The rhyming text flows easily in a thinly-lined sans-serif type against a generous amount of white space. It is a natural complement to the bright aqua-blue–based digital paintings that highlight a gray-based hippo dressed in a pink sweater and black skirt with matching pink barrette in her pageboy hairdo. A winning choice for today’s ever-younger fashionistas. (Picture book. 3-5)
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Frost, Robert Illustrator: Grandma Moses Universe/Rizzoli (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7893-2226-5
Though established long after their passing, one would expect the union of two 20th-century American cultural giants, folk artist Grandma Moses (1860–1961) and poet Robert Frost (1874– 1963), to yield bountiful fruit. Here Frost’s short verse poem, “A Prayer in Spring,” a celebration of the pastoral and living in the present, is set against 21 handsomely reproduced signature landscapes by Moses. While the resulting volume is visually stunning and offers much food for thought for young minds, unfortunately poetic and pictorial themes don’t quite mesh. Frost’s carpe diem entreaty, “O, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day; / And give us not to think so far away / As the uncertain harvest,” jars slightly when interspersed among Moses’ realistic depictions of the many seasons and activities of daily living. “Keep us here / All simply in the springing of the year,” implores Frost, while the subjects of Moses’ grand vistas are too busy doing things—fishing, shearing sheep, flying kites, plowing the fields—to stop and ponder the pleasure being derived from nature. The effect makes one want either to look simply at the richly evocative paintings or to read the poem in its entirety. Since the two entities don’t really |
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inform one another, it’s hard to see how these wonderfully accessible paintings will open up for inexperienced readers this rather sophisticated abstract poem. (Picture book. 10 & up)
THE LIMPING MAN
Gee, Maurice Orca (208 pp.) $18.00 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55469-216-3 Series: The Salt Trilogy, Vol. 3
FANTASY BASEBALL
The Salt trilogy closes with a third generation of children fighting petty but dangerous evils. Hana, a girl from the city’s wretched Bawdhouse Burrow, is orphaned when her mother is burned as a witch. Ben grows up far from the city, raised by his grandparents Pearl and Hari in the idyllic village from Gool (2010). When Hana flees the city, she brings with her a terrifying message for those outside its darkness: The Limping Man is coming. He has the terrible power to make people love him even as he torments them, and he plans to wipe out all who stand against him. Since most of the outsiders—Ben’s family, the forest Dwellers and “the people without a name”—have mental powers, the Limping Man intends to massacre them. Ben and Hana, along with their allies, must find the Limping Man’s secret in order to save their own lives and homes. Ben and Hana’s victories, like those of their parents and grandparents, are local. Even if they do defeat the Limping Man, they cannot vanquish evil from the world; life in the burrows will likely continue to be nasty, brutish and short. The heroes’ personalities are defined by their harsh environments, but they reach beyond those limitations. Fantasy heroes who can save only themselves and their loved ones are a welcome change from the usual. (Fantasy. 13-15)
WORMS FOR LUNCH?
Gore, Leonid Illustrator: Gore, Leonid Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-545-24338-4
“Who eats worms for lunch?” Readers will have to wait until the end to find out. While a worried-looking worm looks on, Mouse rather gleefully shouts, “Not me!” A turn of the die-cut gatefold reveals that Mouse much prefers a large chunk of cheese. But look out, Mouse—you may be on the menu for the cat…or perhaps she would prefer a bowl of milk. Gore continues in this manner, linking one page to the next so the story flows from mouse and cat, to cow, chick, bee, girl, pelican and, finally, to the fish that would love to devour those worms. The artwork is well suited to both larger audiences and smaller children, with big characters, a spare background and simple details to keep the focus on the lunch choices. Bright colors and amusing facial expressions add 310
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to the humor inherent in any exercise of matching creature to foodstuff. Textures given to the acrylic paints in their application give the animals a hint of three-dimensionality while also allowing readers to guess what they might feel like. Sure to be a popular choice for storytimes, with its short sentences and simple vocabulary, this is also a solid choice for beginning readers. (Picture book. 3-7)
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Gratz, Alan Dial (304 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3463-0
Baseball enthusiast Alex finds himself thrust abruptly into the midst of an otherworldly baseball series in which his team, the Cyclones, includes pitcher Dorothy Gale, Tik-Tok, Br’er Rabbit and Toad of Toad Hall. Wrapped in a delirious, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink potpourri of children’s folk and literary characters, Gratz’s book is a slim meditation about what it means to be alive, mortal, dreaming, waking, remembered or forgotten. Dozens of characters, familiar and obscure, make appearances as players, groundskeepers, bus drivers and umpires, all crammed into this Ever After travel tournament perpetually menaced by the Big Bad Wolf. Few are given chances to use their unique personalities in service of the game, so busy are they in getting on and off stage. Alex struggles with an important question: Is he a real boy or is he a merely a “Lark” dreamed up by a sleeping boy? Poignant, occasional glimpses of Alex’s real-world self, coping with chemotherapy, sickness and exhaustion, offer clues to his presence in the fantasy world: Should he care if he ever gets back? Gratz’s lithe humor delivers some good puns, literary and other allusions and one decent takeoff on “Who’s on first?” But the relatively few fine baseball moments are surrounded by what seems like stuffing right out of the Patchwork Girl, while the meaning of Alex’s sojourn in Ever After is obscured by the crowd. (Fantasy. 8-12)
BEST OF THE BEST A Baseball Great Novel
Green, Tim HarperCollins (272 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $17.89 | March 11, 2011 978-0-06-168622-1 PLB 978-0-06-168623-8
Another episode in the life of 12-yearold baseball phenom Josh LeBlanc, introduced in Baseball Great (2009). While still a superstar on the field, off the field Josh has problems. His father is investing money from Nike in what seems like a questionable deal, and the realtor, perky Diane, is turning his father’s head with more than real estate. As his kirkusreviews.com
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“In one double-page spread, a stunned Baby bobs amid choppy waves, and in another, a drenched, agonized Baby wails. Guaranteed to hit the mark with anyone who’s ever felt lost and alone.” from loon baby
parents’ marriage falls apart, Josh and his good buddy, Benji, are finagled onto a local team with a chance at winning the Little League World Series. His dad still wants to be his coach, but Josh is rebellious and frustrated with him. Compounding his woes are his demanding lawn-mowing business, trying to support his mother and little sister in this hard time and the need to stay on top of his game. His best friend, Jaden, a girl with dreams of becoming a reporter, helps out. Plenty of baseball-insider detail and knowledge of the game is imparted as the run to the championship unfolds. The slightly dishonest proceedings that allow both boys to play parallel the equally suspect shenanigans in the adult world. The money involved in sports, even at the kid level, is carefully emphasized, as is the pressure to win. Ethics in sports lifts this above the usual sports saga. (Fiction. 10-14)
PRINCESS POSEY AND THE PERFECT PRESENT
Greene, Stephanie Illustrator: Sisson, Stephanie Roth Putnam (96 pp.) $12.99 paperback original March 1, 2011 978-0-399-25462-8
Posey loves everything about first grade, especially her beloved teacher, Miss Lee. Her best friends, Ava and Nikki, are in her class, and everyone is excited about Miss Lee’s birthday. They want to bring her just the right gift. First graders that they are, full of enthusiasm and love but not organization, they do not coordinate their gifts, and Posey is devastated to see that Nikki’s full bouquet of flowers completely upstages her little handful of roses. Greene (Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade, 2010) continues to get the social dynamic of first-grade girls perfect—the deep need to be loved by their teacher, the joy and confusion of friendships, the quick emotion and equally speedy forgiveness. New readers will recognize the situations and will smile when Posey bumbles her way back into Nikki’s good graces: “I’m sorry. I was being silly…You can use my kitty eraser today.” Very short chapters, generous font, lots of eyesaving white space on each page and frequent black-and-white illustrations make this longish early chapter book accessible to the very earliest reader. Posey is flawed in a way that is absolutely perfect. She struggles with her emotions and finds her way back with the help of her mother, teacher and small circle of buddies. Here’s hoping for more tales of Posey. (Fiction. 5-8)
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LOON BABY
Griffin, Molly Beth Illustrator: Hunter, Anne Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-547-25487-6 When Baby Loon’s mother fails to return, he faces a frightening experience. Baby and Mama Loon live in a soft, warm nest on a small lake in the great north woods. One day Mama submerges to find dinner since Baby can’t dive yet. As he waits, Baby paddles and floats, but soon he’s worried. Mama’s never been gone so long. Determined to find her, Baby puts his head under the water and flipkicks his feet, making wee dives. When it starts raining, Baby realizes he’s “tired and hungry, cold and wet and lonely, and lost,” and emits a “sinking, giving-up cry.” Suddenly a familiar head surfaces with Baby’s dinner in her beak, and a relieved Baby shows off his new kick-flip all the way home. The simple text tracks Baby’s progression from waiting to worrying to fear to anguish while loosely rendered watercolors in blues, greens and grays textured with pen-and-ink cross-hatch visually follow Baby’s descent into despair. Close-ups show worried Baby repeatedly dipping underwater, his web feet kick-flipping as he frantically searches. Aerial views emphasize Baby’s solitary state as his tiny form paddles alone. In one double-page spread, a stunned Baby bobs amid choppy waves, and in another, a drenched, agonized Baby wails. Guaranteed to hit the mark with anyone who’s ever felt lost and alone. (Picture book. 4-8)
SINGLED OUT
Griffiths, Sara Bancroft Press (192 pp.) $19.95 | $14.95 paperback original March 1, 2011 978-1-890862-95-4 paper 978-1-890862-96-1 Taylor, 17, has great talent as a baseball pitcher. However, Taylor is a girl who’s just earned a scholarship to a posh, historically all-boys’ school. There she has a chance to improve her normally abysmal academic performance and to attract the attention of important college scouts. She finds the baseball easy and the academics challenging, but she quickly learns about her real difficulty: avoiding the traps set by a clique of boys that dominates the school. The boys want Taylor and two other new girl students out. First they frame Gabby, the new girl basketball player, as a thief. Taylor knows she’s next. She doesn’t believe she can trust Sam, who appears to be the leader of the clique, although he saves her from their first attempt. Is Sam friend or foe? Griffiths writes in deliberately unadorned prose in order to attract reluctant readers. Her story, however, reflects Taylor’s dignity and never panders to immature readers, demonstrating a keen understanding of and respect for her audience. Her sentences may be simple, but her story is not. |
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“Brisk pacing, sparkling romantic chemistry and genuine heartache will satisfy fans and attract new readers to the series.” from demonglass
Taylor shows courage and determination as she remains wary of her fellow students yet decides to risk taking Sam’s offered help. The suspense will keep even reluctant readers hooked as Taylor seeks both revenge and success. A solid effort with appeal to a wide audience. (Fiction. 12 & up)
UNNATURAL
Griffo, Michael Kensington (352 pp.) $9.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-7582-5338-5 Series: Archangel Academy, Vol. 1 A thicket of overplotting and rampant misuse of literary techniques mar debut novelist Griffo’s multicultural, GLBTQ paranormal series opener. Sixteen-year-old Michael Howard has never fit in among the good people of Weeping Water, Neb., being too withdrawn, too intellectual and too pretty to make friends. Instead, he escapes bullying and torment at school and quasi-alcoholic, depressive dysfunction at home by reading and re-reading his favorite books. Michael knows he’s gay but can’t speak the word aloud, instead fantasizing daily about the rugged gas-station attendant. This is a teen who, in 2010, is convinced that “nobody was like him.” Following his mother’s suicide, Michael’s long-absent father whisks him away to England and enrolls him at exclusive, all-male Archangel Academy, where Michael meets the alluring Ronan. Though his mother’s suicide note, full of anvil-heavy portents, warned that “not everything is what it seems,” Michael and Ronan’s mutual attraction is too powerful for either boy to resist. Can it be destiny? The many subplots all prevent the main plot from building up momentum, and they are too sluggish to hold interest on their own, though they come complete with obvious foreshadowing, preachy speechifying and whiplash-inducing shifts in perspective. Aimed squarely at the YA niche carved out by Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga and P.C. Cast’s House of Night series, this nonsensical wannabe epic falls far short of the mark. (Paranormal. 14 & up)
MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB
Hale, Sarah Josepha Illustrator: Huliska-Beith, Laura Marshall Cavendish (24 pp.) $12.99 | March 1, 2010 978-0-7614-5824-1
This classic poem, written in 1830, continues to be a favorite childhood rhyme for illustrators to illuminate. Huliska-Beith has chosen to illustrate her version with acrylic, gouache and fabric collages, digitally assembled. Her style aims for gently exaggerated humor, especially the schoolkids’ reactions when they “see a lamb at school.” The characters have oversized heads, 312
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fabric-patterned clothing and teeny noses. Mary is blonde with puffy, rouged cheeks and wears red cowboy boots, while the lamb’s coat looks like swirls of meringue. Most modern readers will probably be surprised to discover several extra stanzas, and the sentimental, 19th-century language may leave them cold: The teacher advises the children, “And you each gentle animal / in confidence may bind, / and make them follow at your call, / if you are always kind.” An author’s note provides a bit of history of the rhyme, citing a dubious (evidently unfounded) claim by Mary Sawyer Tyler that she was the “original” Mary. There is a flock of versions, from board books to big books, as well as spoofs (Jack Lechner and Bob Staake fracture the tale in Mary Had a Little Lamp, 2008) to sing-alongs, but many are out of print. Kids will respond to the embellished silliness of this one, but for charm, Salley Mavor’s stitchery images can’t be beat (2000). Music is not included. (Picture book. 3-6)
DEMONGLASS
Hawkins, Rachel Disney Hyperion (368 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4231-2131-2 Series: Hex Hall, Vol. 2 Sophie Mercer is back, brandishing self-deprecating sarcastic wit while suffering from both a broken heart and a sizable chip on her shoulder after discovering that she is not a witch but an extremely powerful demon. In this follow-up to Hex Hall (2010), Sophie’s father, head of the Prodigium Council and also the only other known living demon, whisks her off to Prodigium headquarters in England to help her learn how to control her powers, and—he hopes—change her mind about her wish to have her powers removed. Meanwhile, having witnessed the damage unleashed by uncontrolled magical abilities, Sophie’s vampire buddy Jenna is desperate to protect her friends and family by becoming a regular girl. Although everyone at Thorne Abbey is solicitous and welcoming, Sophie can’t shake the feeling that something is very wrong. Small wonder: First, someone is raising new demons, ones with unstable powers and a penchant for trouble. Adding to the thrills, Prodigium-haters L’Occhio di Dio are still on the hunt for Sophie, with the apparently evil, but crush-worthy, Archer Cross leading the charge. Soon, the plot twists fold back on themselves, revealing treachery within the Prodigium’s upper echelons, Archer’s own triple-agent leanings and his love for Sophie. The climax leaves chaos and many strings dangling. Brisk pacing, sparkling romantic chemistry and genuine heartache will satisfy fans and attract new readers to the series. (Fantasy. YA)
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SKATEFATE
PEACEFUL PIECES
Herrera, Juan Felipe Rayo/HarperCollins (128 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-143287-3 Short diary entries and a series of confident, colorful poems introduce readers to Lucky, a wheelchair-bound former skater and drag racer who became paralyzed after a car accident. Despite the fact that Lucky is now in foster care after losing both his parents (one to Iraq War–induced post traumatic stress syndrome, one to breast cancer), he maintains a sunny outlook as evidenced by his mostly upbeat poetry. Some readers will enjoy Herrera’s lyrical poems, full of strong images and stop-and-go rhythms (“on the gnarled foot so it will turn into a swan / on the hurt breast so that every beat of the heart / writes a new word for love”), while those looking for the story of a skateboarder that the title and cover promises may come away disappointed. The very brief prose sections don’t provide enough detail to put the often nonsensical poetry into context. The result is a mixed bag that doesn’t quite work as a narrative or a story in verse. Only one thing is certain—readers expecting a skating account are in for a wipeout. (Poetry. 12 & up)
SPRING IS HERE
Hillenbrand, Will Illustrator: Hillenbrand, Will Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8234-1602-8 Mole is absolutely thrilled that spring has finally arrived. As the mud squishes up between his bare toes, he realizes that he needs to give Bear a wake-up call so they can share spring together. But that is easier said than done. Clues hidden in the illustrations will help children guess how Mole is going to wake up his friend. The stick rapping on the window doesn’t work. Neither does a knock on his door. Mole ups the ante with a feather to Bear’s nose and finally some toots on his trumpet. Nothing works. After some thought, Mole dashes outside. His chores keep him busy for quite some time as he prepares a feast for Bear the old-fashioned way, even milking the cow and churning the butter himself. So, it is no surprise that he is rather droopy-eyed when he finally delivers Bear’s tray. Nor is the fact that while Bear is wide-eyed and thrilled to welcome spring, Mole has fallen fast asleep. Hillenbrand has crafted in Mole a character sure to tug at readers’ hearts. His diligence, excitement and desire to share the wonders of spring are a breath of fresh air. The mixed-media illustrations capture both the harbingers of early springtime and Mole’s enthusiasm, while Bear’s droll expressions are charming. A sweet, simple tale of the lengths we all go to in the name of friendship…and spring. (Picture book. 3-6)
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Hines, Anna Grossnickle Illustrator: Hines, Anna Grossnickle Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 29, 2011 978-0-8050-8996-7 Hines’ art is always beautiful; she illustrates her work with astonishing quilts, reproduced full-size, in a variety of designs: In this work she uses black-and-white reverse patterns, mosaic-type images, photographs made into quilt patterns and lots and lots of gorgeous color. She uses this abundance of styles in her poems, too, offering acrostic, haiku, rhymed and free verse as well as concrete poetry (“Peace. Pass it on,” repeats over and over around a quilted globe, held by quilted hands of many colors, including orange and purple). In “What If?” she muses, “What if guns / fired marshmallow bullets, / and bombs burst / into feather clouds / sending us into fits / of giggles? What if / we all died / laughing?” It is very difficult to write about peace for children—or anyone else—without sinking into bathos or pure sappiness, and this collection doesn’t always rise above, but these missteps are small. Brief paragraphs about various peacemakers at the back, including two children (Samantha Smith, 1972–1985, and Mattie Stepanek, 1990–2004), tether the poems to reality; her description of making the quilts and the support of her quilters’ group is wonderful in and by itself for both children and adults to read. A poem about two sisters made to stand nose-to-nose until they stop fighting and dissolve into giggles is a truly fine idea—wonder if it would work with world leaders? (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)
CHECK IT OUT! Reading, Finding, Helping
Hubbell, Patricia Illustrator: Speir, Nancy Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5803-4
This passionate librarian may not possess any actual superpowers, though her limitless energy suggests otherwise. The unnamed professional gaily prowls her shelves to connect the right read with each of her young students. She balances a tower of books, prepares art projects and shelves materials without assistance. The fun of reading is the emphasis in this succinct selection, while research’s valuable role receives only a brief nod. There’s no conflict or nuance to be found in the upbeat story, but the positive message and its brief rhyming text remain unforced throughout. Short phrases merrily clip along, “books with pictures, books with none, / books about the moon and sun.” Smiling youngsters against cheery, solid backgrounds are all sunny smiles. Creative activities encourage classmates to participate; children march along in an exuberant parade with tomes from Harry Potter to Peter Rabbit. There’s a glimpse |
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into the school’s physical space (the technology appears more prehistoric than cutting edge), but the focus is on the career and not the library’s location. While there’s no denying the idealism beneath this book, it does shatter the unflattering stereotype haunting librarians (“Shh!”) and replaces it with one wonder of a woman. (Picture book. 2-6)
THE BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER
Huget, Jennifer LaRue Illustrator: Pham, LeUyen Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $19.99 | March 8, 2011 978-0-375-84763-9 PLB 978-0-375-95763-5 A little girl is planning her birthday party, which is only five months, three weeks, two days and eight hours away. She wants to make all the invitations and invite all her friends, “Plus my grandmas. And the mailman. And the lady at the bank who gives me lollipops.” As the day looms closer, she thinks about thousands of balloons—all pink— and 17 (different!) layers of cake. There will be real tiaras for the girls and clown hats with bells, all made by her mother. Her dad will build the castle with the moat (Pham adds a grandma snorkeling in that moat to the little girl’s mental image). Finally, the day comes, and even though there are no magicians or Ferris wheel and only two layers of cake, it is a perfectly splendid party. Pham’s appropriately rosy watercolors are just the right pairing for the ebullient text, which tumbles about the pages. The girl’s room—very pink, initially rather neat, with her dog and her hamster and her favorite toy elephant, Ferris wheel, and castle and books like Cakes Made Simple!—turns into an utterly messy amalgam of all of her ideas just before the actual party. Her parents keep smiling through it all, her bearded dad and her mom with an adult version of her haircut. There are smiles, actually, all around for everyone. (Picture book. 5-8)
BETTER THAN WEIRD
Kerz, Anna Orca (224 pp.) $9.95 paperback original March 1, 2011 978-1-55469-362-7
counselor, Karen, works with him on “reading faces”; and a Big Brother has given him helpful tips. Aaron’s friendship with classmate Jeremy, described from Jeremy’s point of view in The Mealworm Diaries (2009), is sorely tested. Veteran storyteller Kerz moves the third-person narration along quickly, making it jump from scene to scene like Aaron’s attention. Realistically, not every teacher is patient with this challenging boy. His father doesn’t live up to all his expectations, nor he, his father’s. But the surprise turns out to be a positive one; his new, pregnant stepmother welcomes him sympathetically. The details of school life are believable and familiar, and the ending leaves Aaron and readers waiting for a hopeful outcome—the day when he and Gran can move to join his father and new family in Dawson. This companion book stands alone but will surely send readers back to read the first. (Fiction. 9-12)
SIDELINED
Kew, Trevor Lorimer Press (128 pp.) $9.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-55277-550-9 In this action-filled sequel to Trading Goals (2010), Vicky Parker enjoys being a key player on her school’s soccer team. Changes are on the horizon for 14-yearold Vicky both on and off the field, though. When Vicky learns that her coach will be selecting an elite group to travel to England to play in an international girl’s soccer tournament, it places enormous stress on her friendship with teammates Marjan and Parm. Marjan and Vicky enlist the help of Neville, high-school senior and star soccer player, to improve their soccer skills. As Vicky’s time with the quiet Neville becomes more romantic than sportsoriented, Marj’s escalating jealousy threatens to destroy their friendship. While struggling with first crushes and friendship woes, Vicky’s home life begins to undergo considerable changes. Vicky is surprised to discover that her mother has a new boyfriend nearly a decade after Vicky’s father left, and she’s uncertain about Dave’s role in her life. Kew does an excellent job segueing between the high-intensity sports-action sequences and the more fragile emotional scenes. Vicky’s endeavors to balance her fledgling romance, soccer aspirations and a changing family structure will resonate with readers. (Fiction. 11 - 14)
THE THREE BULLY GOATS
Nicknamed “Cantwait” by his classmates for his impulsive behavior, awkward sixth-grader Aaron impatiently waits for several things. His father, gone for eight years, is returning with a surprise. Class bully Tufan threatens retribution. The grandmother who has raised him goes for cancer surgery. This moving story looks at both family and school life from the point of view of a boy trying hard to fit into a world he doesn’t quite understand. His loving Gran keeps after him, gently but steadily; the school 314
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Kimmelman, Leslie Illustrator: Terry, Will Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8075-7900-8
The classic tale gets stood on its head in this twist from Kimmelman. The three bully goats, Gruff, Ruff and Tuff, live in a kirkusreviews.com
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“For the youngest set, a basic introduction to barnyard animals; for emergent readers, a repetition-filled romp; for all, sheer fun.” from chicken, chicken, duck
gorgeous meadow where they bully all the animals around and never share their grass. But they aren’t happy—the grass over the bridge looks so much nicer. And the ogre guarding the bridge? They hardly give the puny fellow a second thought. The three take their turns tripping across the bridge, the cheerfully nice ogre attempting to make friends with them and getting rebuffed by the grouchy goats. Once over the bridge, the goats set about ruining life in the pleasant meadow with their bullying ways. Upset over this, Little Ogre comes up with a clever plan, and with the help of some baby animals who have some built-in protection of their own, the meadow is freed of the bullies for good. Terry’s brilliantly colored acrylics have a soft, out-of-focus look to them, but there is no mistaking the grouchy looks and mean personalities of his Bully Goats. Big round eyes characterize the innocence of the baby animals, while Little Ogre has excellent, green warty skin, a vivid purple Mohawk and kind-hearted ways. Kimmelman’s version stands out even from other nontraditional versions, since the ogre/troll is the good guy and the goats are the villains. A good springboard for both bullying conversations and problem-solving sessions. (Picture book. 4-8)
OH, HOW SYLVESTER CAN PESTER! And Other Poems More or Less About Manners Kinerk, Robert Illustrator: Kozjan, Drazen Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 8, 2011 978-1-4169-3362-5
Manners in meter. Kozjan uses bright and cheerful figures with exaggerated expressions and gestures to illustrate Kinerk’s verse. The poems range from longer advisories in multiple panels to brief expositions with many spot images to full-panel spreads that reflect the waggish humor of the words. The poet never loses his light touch: Verses about cleaning one’s room, coping with getting the giggles and talking (not) at the movies get their points across. Some children are presented in narrative, like Chuck who takes a bath before he polishes his shoes, with inevitable results, or Eleanor Ickity, whose dislike of almost any foodstuff ends with her grossing out her parents with a plate of corn and chocolate sauce. Then there’s Egbert, who tends to drop his clothes everywhere, leaving him with not a stitch, er, behind. Kinerk slips the idea that good manners are really about being nice to each other in general. He doesn’t overtly quote the Golden Rule (Do unto others, etc.), but it underlies all the fun. Readers would do well to learn from the example of Claymore B. Tate, who is so refined that he cannot help but correct everyone else at table: “Manners aren’t lists of the things you should do. / Manners help folks become easy with you.” (Picture book/poetry. 5-8)
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CHICKEN, CHICKEN, DUCK!
Krilanovich, Nadia Illustrator: Krilanovich, Nadia Tricycle (32 pp.) $14.99 | March 22, 2011 978-1-58246-385-8
Who can control six chickens, a goat, a llama, a cow, a dog and a whole host of other barnyard animals? One loud-mouthed duck, that’s who. In a simple chant inspired by “Duck, Duck, Goose,” but more reminiscent of playground jump-rope rhythms, Krilanovich bops along through the farm, naming animals and their corresponding sounds—always ending with a great, big “Quack!” from Duck. “Chicken / Chicken / Duck / Horse / Pig / Cow / neigh neigh / grunt grunt / moo / cluck / QUACK!”—children will be chanting along by the end of the first reading. Textured acrylic brushstrokes set against a stark, white backdrop pulls the focus toward each individual animal as they leap and kick across the page, sometimes perched in precarious positions— the goat poses balletically atop the llama, and it looks as though the sheep is going to climb up there, too. The beady, mischievous eyes of the chickens hint that something silly is going on at the farm. But what? All comes clear in the penultimate spread, which will require that the book be rotated 90 degrees for full appreciation. For the youngest set, a basic introduction to barnyard animals; for emergent readers, a repetition-filled romp; for all, sheer fun. (Picture book. 2-5)
THREE HENS AND A PEACOCK
Laminack, Lester L. Illustrator: Cole, Henry Peachtree (32 pp.) $15.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-56145-564-5
All is calm on the Tuckers’ farm. Cows are quietly chewing cud, hens are clucking and pecking, old hound’s lazing on the porch. Only an occasional customer at the produce stand disturbs the routine—until a crate drops out of a passing truck and out pops a peacock! It’s his first time on a farm, and he has no idea what to do. He does what comes naturally, and before long, his strutting and shrieking draws attention. Business at the farm stand booms…but the hens are jealous. They do all the work, and that upstart peacock gets all the attention. Peacock wants to be useful, so old hound suggests the two groups switch jobs. The hens glam it up with beads and bows, and peacock does his darndest to lay eggs. No one’s successful. Thanks to old hound, everyone learns a lesson about sticking to their strengths. Laminack’s tale of barnyard envy is a fine addition to farm fables, but it’s Cole’s signature watercolor, ink, and pencil cartoon illustrations that charm here. His frenetically posing chickens will inspire giggles, as will old hound’s sardonic looks. Good farm fun. (Picture book. 4-8) |
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“The artist’s use of color guides the reader through the heights and valleys of action and emotion subtly, while his paneling is varied and interestingly designed, always providing the reader with a fresh perspective of the scene.” from excalibur: the legend of king arthur
MIA, MATT AND THE LAZY GATOR
selfishness in the abstract, she’s protected from having to put them in practice. (Fiction. 12 & up)
Langois, Annie Illustrator: Beaulieu, Jimmy Translator: Cummins, Sarah Formac (64 pp.) $5.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-88780-936-1
EXCALIBUR The Legend of King Arthur
This early chapter book is a somewhat awkward translation from the French original. Twins Mia and Matt head to their Uncle Orlando’s summer cottage, as they do every year. Orlando is a famous animal trainer, and the twins can’t wait to see what sort of animal his current project involves, especially since he often needs their help to get the creatures to cooperate. The twins are stunned to discover that this year’s mammoth task is to train an alligator to dance, and, as Mia and Matt feared, it is not going well. To complicate things further, Orlando is distracted by his “charming sweetheart,” Maria, and even Matt has gotten bitten by the love bug. Mia devises a plan to get things back on track with the gator Gabe, but it turns out that Gabe is the one with the bigger surprise in store. Though the design and layout suggest a young target audience, the advanced vocabulary (writhe, posterity and discreetly all appear on a single page) as well as the romantic focus—sweethearts, smooches and spooning all making an appearance—will make this one a hard sell to the early elementary crowd. (Fiction. 6-9)
SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD
Leavitt, Lindsey Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59990-498-6
Payton Gritas’ world is turned upside down when she discovers her father has multiple sclerosis and that her parents and older brothers have kept the news from her for six months. Devastated, Payton is referred to the school counselor, who, within seconds of meeting her, instructs Payton to select a subject to focus on, other than her father’s illness, and record her observations in a journal. Neither the therapeutic relationship nor the assignment makes much sense, but they get the plot rolling. Payton’s random choice of “focus object” is the head of Sean Griswold, the boy seated ahead of her in biology. Egged on by her best friend, Jac, Payton researches Sean, and her attention evolves into a mutual attraction. Payton is likable and the writing brisk and amusing, but this offering from the author of Princess for Hire (2010), encumbered by too-visible plot contrivances, fails to convince. Complex, significant issues are raised but then accorded frustratingly superficial treatment. Payton’s life and affluent lifestyle are barely affected by her father’s illness; the biggest impact is cancellation of a family spring-break getaway to Florida. While she learns a few lessons about denial and 316
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Lee, Tony Illustrator: Hart, Sam Candlewick (144 pp.) $21.99 | $11.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4644-8 paper 978-0-7636-4643-1
The author of Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood (2009) proves once again that he’s a master of graphic-novel adaptations. Teaming up with illustrator and colorist Hart, his partner for the previous title, Lee negotiates the terrain of medieval legend with finesse, rendering it easily accessible for a new generation of readers. They touch on it all here: the sword in the stone, King Arthur and his round table, the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere. The magical stylings of Merlin and Morgana are also explored, making for one of the more interesting story lines in a book of many. The quiet exposition of tangled court scheming as well as careful introductions of an overly-vowelled cast of characters break down intricate plotlines for young readers unlikely to be familiar with much of the story’s content. The author’s striking, urgent prose sets the pace of the action, but it’s Hart that truly shines here. The artist’s use of color guides the reader through the heights and valleys of action and emotion subtly, while his paneling is varied and interestingly designed, always providing the reader with a fresh perspective of the scene. Masterful adaptation of medieval material. (Graphic fantasy. 12 & up)
CLOUDETTE
Lichtenheld, Tom Illustrator: Lichtenheld, Tom Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (40 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8050-8776-5 Lichtenheld takes a charming turn with the “tiny but mighty” theme. Cloudette usually enjoys being small—she can cavort with birds and kites, and hide between skyscrapers. But she’s wistful when other clouds do big things, like create cold fronts and water crops. Her imagination yields lots of wishes, depicted in ink-and-watercolor spot illustrations. “[S]he thought nothing would be more fun than giving some kids a day off from school,” accompanies a snowscape with banks billowing up to the windows of the school and buses clearly going nowhere. No one seems to need a little cloud, but when she’s blown clear out of her neighborhood, she’s welcomed by new friends—an eagle, a bear and fluffy cumuli. She spies a frog in a former pond, now just a puddle of cracked mud, and has a helpful “brainstorm.” Lichtenheld’s depictions of Cloudette puffing herself up for kirkusreviews.com
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a fulsome downpour will delight children, and funny turns of phrase (“Even the higher-ups were impressed”) will engage adults, too. The whimsy would nicely complement a preschool or primary weather unit. The author even uses rainwater for the watercolor pictures. (“Thank you, clouds,” he writes in the media statement.) Sweet and sunny. (Picture book. 3-7)
THE CROAKY POKEY!
Long, Ethan Illustrator: Long, Ethan Holiday House (32 pp.) $14.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2291-3
As implied by the title, the Hokey Pokey takes on a decidedly amphibian tone in this sprightly, cheerful selection, which is filled to the brim with kid appeal. As the song begins, children are invited to join the frogs and follow the traditional lyrics and movements (“Put your right hand in, / Put your right hand out”) until they’ve waved said appendage all about, but then the words change: “Hop the Croaky Pokey / As we chase a fly around, / Right in the froggy’s mouth! / WHAP!” Lively, cartoonish illustrations feature animals at a pond, including a number of frogs (in a delightful variety of greens), none of whom, it turns out, is particularly skilled at catching bugs. As the song continues, hilarity ensues as the blissfully ignorant target fly remains just out of reach, despite all the frogs’ best efforts. But luck like this can’t possibly last forever—can it? Children will giggle throughout, especially at the surprise ending, and will be singing and dancing along in seconds flat. A nice choice for school and home and a good choice for reluctant readers, full of energy, humor and fun. (Picture book. 3-6)
BASKETBALL BELLES How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women’s Hoops on the Map
Macy, Sue Illustrator: Collins, Matt Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 15, 2011 978-0-8234-2163-3
basketball, the story is so brief as to seem slight. Readers will crave more information: What types of shoes do the players wear? Why are the nets closed? How did this particular game come about? What happens next? An author’s note fleshes out some biographical details about Morley and the other players and discusses women’s basketball in America. A timeline is included, but unfortunately it ends in 1997 with the introduction of the WNBA. A resource section lists books and places to visit, and a photograph of the 1896 Stanford women’s basketball team concludes the book. The excellent backmatter, however, doesn’t compensate enough for the too-slim story. (Nonfiction 7-11)
THE BLUES GOES EXTREME BIRDING
Malnor, Carol L. and Fuller, Sandy F. Illustrator: Schroeder, Louise Dawn Publications (36 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58469-133-4 A band of five cartoon bluebirds travel the world in search of record-setting bird species—the fastest, best mimic, highest flying, pinkest and more. This third in a series, which began with The BLUES Go Birding Across America (2010), continues to promote bird-watching among young readers through the antics of bluebirds musicians Bing, Lulu, Uno, Eggbert and Sammi— each with identifiable characteristics and easily distinguished from the more realistic birds illustrated on the pages. Each of the dozen species is introduced in the narrative and described further through entries in a nature notebook and a field guide. “Extra Extremes” mention species that set similar records. Some of the birds may be familiar to young readers—the peregrine falcon, emperor penguin and ostrich, for instance—but others will be new. Their trip ends with a sighting of the horned sungem hummingbird in Brazil, an opportunity for the authors to promote an upcoming volume about the rain forest. The band’s trip is mapped at the end on a world map with labeled continents; a handy list reviews the species and notes where they were sighted. The facts have been vetted by a birding expert, sources are given in the acknowledgements and birding closer to home is encouraged. This is a clever extension of the series, taking advantage of children’s interest in records and in Xtreme sports of all kinds. (Informational picture book. 5-9)
In 1896, a historic basketball game was played between the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University. It was the first women’s intercollegiate game, played five years after basketball was invented. Agnes Morley, a rancher’s daughter, narrates the story and excels as a Stanford player during the groundbreaking event. The focus is on the play-by-play of the game, which had different rules for women and was attended by 500 cheering female spectators. Collins’ digitally created artwork captures the dynamic game and develops the characters, from Morley’s determination as she brands a calf on her ranch to her team’s exuberance at their victory in the game. While seemingly meant to introduce readers to the history of women’s |
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THE PIPER’S SON
Marchetta, Melina Candlewick (336 pp.) $17.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7636-47582
Five years after the events of Saving Francesca (2004), Tom Mackee needs saving from himself. Drugs and sex have become his refuge from the pain of his Uncle Joe’s death on a bus bombed by a |
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terrorist. This companion novel details Tom’s return from his private hell. The main plots depict Francesca’s prescription for bringing Tom back into their circle of friends as well as Tom’s attempts to mend his romance with “Psycho Tara,” which fell apart when he dropped Tara (after what she called their “oneand-a-half night stand”). Superior fiction requires excellent characterization, and Marchetta delivers. The Mackee/Finch clan and their friends are full of life, making them memorable sources of humor and compassion. The setting—a workingclass neighborhood of Sydney, Australia—expands readers’ understanding of the characters that it shaped. The third-person narration provides a rounded picture of all the characters (adults and children, family, friends and lovers), while e-mails and text messages show Tom’s grief and bewilderment. Give this to the author’s fans, lovers of breakup books (Tom and Tara’s split is a doozie) and teens who enjoy books about places other than where they are. (Fiction. 14 & up)
KITTY CAT, KITTY CAT, ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP?
Martin Jr., Bill and Michael Sampson Illustrator: Bryant, Laura J. Marshall Cavendish (24 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5946-0 The bedtime routine for this little kitty is filled with all the excuses she can think of, fueled by her reluctance to accept the end of the day. She holds out to: take one more look at the setting sun, play one more peek-a-boo game, pretend she is in outer space instead of the bath, play with her toes instead of putting on pajamas. Martin and Sampson’s simple text provides a reassuring gentleness while firmly bringing the day to a close. “ ‘Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, / you’ve finally closed your eyes.’ / ‘That’s right, Mother, / time for lullabies.’ / ‘Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, / I’m turning out the light.’ / ‘Good night, Mother, / I will sleep sooo tight.’ ” While the text has the repetition and rhythm that are almost always winners in books for this age, the scansion stumbles too often for complete success. A bold green typeface balances against the pale blue, green and brown hues of the watercolor-and–colored-pencil art that displays a hint of a Japanese-print aesthetic in the bold patterns and luxuriant drape and fold of towels and blankets. These enclose a likable, if not adorable, Kitty and her patient mom, first seen in Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Waking Up? (2008). The patterned, rhyming text will be welcomed by little ones at their own bedtime, but as an addition to rather than a substitute for the bedtime canon. (Picture book. 2-4)
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THE GOODBYE CANCER GARDEN
Matthies, Janna Illustrator: Valiant, Kristi Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8075-2994-2
A sunny story about how a family deals with the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Young Janie and Jeffrey have a lot of questions about their mother’s cancer, and the doctor tells them, “[W]e’re working very hard to make her better—probably by pumpkin time.” Janie decides to plant a garden in their yard— “Hello pumpkins, goodbye cancer!” The path of cancer and treatment is clearly explained in the text for very young readers—the operation, the chemo, the medical tests, the hair loss, the aches and exhaustion—as Janie and her family plan and plant the garden. Bright breezy illustrations show the family accepting the challenge with grace and optimism. However, the illustrations do not show any of the difficult side effects of chemo and surgery. Except for the very first page, Mom always has a sunny smile, even when newly bald. Friends cheerfully line up to help feed and care for the family, and the illness is painted as a little more than a bump in the road. Looking on the bright side is important when facing a cancer diagnosis, but the illustrations could have given a small nod to its challenges in order to make this book a little more realistic. (Picture book. 3-8)
MY MOM HAS X-RAY VISION
McAllister, Angela Illustrator: Smith, Alex T. Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $15.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-097-4
All children believe their mom is the best (at least until they turn into teenagers), but how many have thought their moms might have superpowers? “Matthew’s Mom was like all the other moms. She had ordinary hair, ordinary clothes, and a nice smile.... / Except she could see through things. Matthew was pretty sure she had X-ray vision.” How else could she have known that Matthew was wrestling with a giant sea monster in his bath when she wasn’t even in the room? Or that he had all the saucepans in the yard, when she in the kitchen? McAllister’s wry tale explores a not-uncommon childhood article of faith. The deadpan text unfolds with total believability. Matthew’s faith is momentarily shaken when he decides to test mom’s extraordinary power by hiding in a closet, but his conclusion that his mom really is ordinary, “like all the rest,” is short-lived. How could she possibly have known he had stashed a bag of chips under his sweater?! Smith’s digital collages incorporate cartoony line-and-color drawings with funky prints and textures for a lively and engaging complement to the text. The endpapers depict Matthew’s “Evidence Report” revealing kirkusreviews.com
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“The brisk pace, solid character development and inventive structuring make for fast, page-turning reading...” from she said/she saw
his ordinary mom (complete with sensible shoes) and her secret identity, Supermom (flowing red cape and rocket boots). It’s a rare kid who won’t be able to identify with and chuckle at this one. (Picture book. 3-6)
SHE SAID/SHE SAW
McClintock, Norah Orca (224 pp.) $12.95 paperback | March 1, 2011 978-1-55469-335-1 McClintock, the author of the Ellis Award–winning Chloe & Levesque crime series for teen readers, returns with a slim and shocking stand-alone. Tegan and Kelly are nearly twins, born less than a year apart. They live with their single mom, inhabiting realities so starkly different they barely acknowledge one another’s existence—until the unthinkable happens. Tegan’s two best friends are shot dead at pointblank range right in front of her. As the investigation unfolds, Tegan’s unable to contribute in any meaningful way, either having blocked out the memory of that night or having failed to pick up any details of it in the first place. She becomes the most widely reviled girl in school, and even Kelly isn’t sure she trusts Tegan anymore. McClintock lays all the complexities and horror of adolescence bare. She has the two sisters trade turns narrating, with Kelly’s narrative written as a screenplay and Tegan’s composed as first-person journal entries. The brisk pace, solid character development and inventive structuring make for fast, page-turning reading, and at all wraps up with an unpredictable plot twist and ending. Mysterious and haunting, packed with hard truths about adolescence. (Mystery. 15 & up)
WADDLES
McPhail, David Illustrator: McPhail, David Abrams (32 pp.) $18.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8109-8415-8 McPhail’s latest follows a year in the life of Waddles, a rotund raccoon, and his best friend, Emily, a duck who lives in the pond near Waddles’ tree home. They share companionship, swimming forays and, sometimes, dining adventures. When Emily lays her eggs in the spring, Waddles brings her food every day, then offers to sit on the nest in her place to give her swim breaks. Hortonlike, Waddles determinedly guards his charges, even against a hungry fox. When the ducklings hatch beneath his soft, warm fur, Waddles brings the new babies down to the pond to meet their mother, ushering in a fun-filled summer. Sadness is on the horizon with winter, though, as Emily tells Waddles that she and the ducklings must fly south, and he is left bereft in the cold, not even able to muster his usual voracious appetite. Then spring and Emily and the now not-so-tiny |
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ducklings return. Food tastes good to Waddles again, though he realizes fullness really comes from the heart, not the tummy. Purportedly a story about how much Waddles loves to eat and perhaps even meant to be a cautionary tale about overeating, this aspect of the story quickly gets lost. The charming, expressive paintings that capture the friends’ cozy relationship are the real draw in this friendship story. (Picture book. 3-6)
THE ICE CREAM KING
Metzger, Steve Illustrator: Downing, Julie Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $15.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-096-3
A little boy loves ice cream more than anything else in the world...or does he? One hot July day, the sight of a “BRAND NEW ICE CREAM SHOP!” stops Teddy Jones dead in his tracks. He convinces his wilting mom to check it out; when the server places a gold paper crown on Teddy’s head, his imagination runs wild (and Downing’s illustrations go from black-and-white with a hint of pale pink to bright color). As the newly crowned “Ice Cream King,” Teddy imagines giant treats all around him. “I slip and slide down Whipped Cream Lane, / then climb up Ice Cream Mountain.” On a silver sailboat, he tastes more scrumptious sweets, nuts and cherries and the eruptions of a vanilla fudge volcano. He’s the only judge for today’s Ice Cream Festival, but he suddenly realizes that there’s something missing: “I’M ALL ALONE!” His life would be much better if he had someone to share it with. Instantly, Teddy is transported back to the new ice cream shop (and blackand-white illustrations). He places his elaborate order, gleefully asking for two spoons. Metzger’s rhyming text is crisp and accessible, and his message all the more effective for its deft delivery. Downing’s apt, simple pictures properly enhance the tale. Guilt-free deliciousness (Picture book. 3-6)
RAFFI’S NEW FRIEND
Meunier, Sylvain Translator: Cummins, Sarah Illustrator: Eudes-Pascal, Élisabeth Formac (64 pp.) $5.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-88780-933-0 This early chapter book, translated from the French, tackles some weighty subjects and, sadly, is all but drowned by them. Raffi and Carlito set out to befriend a new girl, Fatima, whose headscarf has made her the target of the school bullies—the same bullies who taunt Raffi because he uses crutches due to his sickle-cell anemia. When Raffi asks his parents why Arab girls wear headscarves, they warn him not to “confuse Arab and Muslim.” When a neighbor reveals that he and his wife avoid the new family, Carlito asks |
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“The artist’s use of color guides the reader through the heights and valleys of action and emotion subtly, while his paneling is varied and interestingly designed, always providing the reader with a fresh perspective of the scene.” from angelfire
Raffi why this is. Raffi explains clearly but with no regard to natural-sounding dialogue: “Oh, that’s just the way the Raycrofts are. They’re always afraid of people they don’t know. It’s called prejudice. They were afraid of us at the beginning, because we’re black.” Once the two boys find Fatima, they discover that she has bigger problems than the school bullies. It seems her father returned to the old country to pick up Fatima’s grandmother just as the country had broken into war, and Fatima and her mother are sick with worry as they await his return. This overly ambitious title could definitely spark discussion about bullying, violence, prejudice and war, but that presumes that someone can convince children to read it first. (Fiction. 6-10)
THE VESPERTINE
Mitchell, Saundra Harcourt (304 pp.) $16.99 | March 7, 2011 978-0-547-48247-7
action. “Hey, little beachcomber, what do you say? / Let’s take a trip to the beach today!” The possibilities appear endless, as various families and friends bask in the sun and ride the waves. The cheerful voice remains optimistic throughout. Whether the picnic overflows with food or birds scrounge for tasty treats, there’s always another way to enjoy the warm weather. The lilting text naturally progresses through each experience. An upbeat resolution concludes the outdoor outing. Pastel spreads flash with smudges of golden color, with their hazy hues dominating each page, the brief rhyming text highlighting each featured activity. Thick strokes convey the water’s intensity, while squiggled lines shade in each face. Clean white edges maintain the focus on the energetic pictures within. The absence of concrete borders allows the soft shades to ebb and flow, resembling the ocean’s calming crash. Overall, a fresh take on the joys of the salty sea. (Picture book. 2-6)
ANGELFIRE
Sixteen-year-old Amelia travels from Maine to Baltimore to find a husband in 1889, never expecting to end up by destroying her own friends in this historical supernatural romance. Amelia learns quite by accident that at sunset, or Vespers, she sees visions of the future. At first it’s a game, with predictions of pretty new dresses and desirable dancing partners. Eventually, though, Amelia’s visions become darker. She delights her friends when she tells of good fortune, but when tragedy strikes, they blame her. Meanwhile Amelia has met Nathaniel, a poor but talented artist whom she knows can never be a suitable husband yet to whom she’s immensely attracted. No wonder. It turns out that Nathaniel has a supernatural talent of his own. Mitchell, in her debut novel, depicts Victorian middle-class society with real flair. Her descriptions of the girls ring vibrantly true. Readers see how they act and talk, how they worry about their dresses and their future husbands. The author takes a chance by using some antiquated language, but readers interested in the story should be able to follow the action with no difficulty. Both the forbidden romance and the Vespers visions work to keep readers’ interest high. A nifty surprise ending ices the cake. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)
HUSH, LITTLE BEACHCOMBER
Moritz, Dianne Illustrator: McGee, Holly Kane/Miller (32 pp.) $14.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-935279-81-5
Moulton, Courtney Allison Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $17.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-200232-7 Spoiled rich girl discovers she has a destiny to kill demons and maybe prevent Armageddon. Ellie is the Preliator, a reincarnated fighter with angelic connections, destined to kill Reapers before they kill people and send their souls to Hell. Her guide is Will, who has watched her back for 500 years and has really intense green eyes. Despite magical flaming blades, a convoluted but interesting angel angle and forbidden romance, this first-in-a-series ultimately fails because Ellie is so intensely unlikable. On her 17th birthday she receives an Audi, which is quickly destroyed, and seems more upset at the car’s demise than the death of her favorite teacher. Too much time is devoted to minutiae (dress shopping, who likes who, drinking) at the expense of the paranormal plot, which is all exposition and action scenes. Ellie’s habit of turning her back on deadly enemies mid-fight to run to check on Will and the inability of anyone to ever kill anyone else get old pretty quickly, and the late-breaking random appearance of a sexy bad-boy reaper is just pandering to the love triangle trope. The most amazing thing about this book might be the fact that it manages to avoid any references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer despite obvious parallels and a final line that sounds like it could’ve come straight from the show. Yes, the teen appetite for the formulaic appears bottomless and angels are the new vampire, but this one never rises above mediocre. (Paranormal romance. YA)
“Hush, Little Baby” receives a bright makeover, with seagulls and sand pies replacing mockingbirds and diamond rings. Repetitive phrases may mirror the soothing lullaby’s format, but this blissful beach day opens with a more enthusiastic call for 320
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PICKLICIOUS! A Dilly of a Book
Myer, Andy Illustrator: Myer, Andy Running Press Kids (32 pp.) $15.95 | March 8, 2011 978-0-7624-4018-4
Alec enjoys pickles’ snappy yumminess in all their great shades and variations, but no one understands his heartfelt adoration for them. Though he earnestly expresses their “picklicious” qualities at every opportunity, his family and classmates bluntly point out their vinegary shortcomings. “Pickles won’t fetch sticks. / You can’t play sports with them. / They make terrible kites.” The child’s quirky fascination leaves him with a haunting sense of loneliness. A cucumber truck randomly appears at this low moment, and Alec hops aboard. He experiences the pickling process firsthand until Inspector 105 scoops him off the conveyor belt and straight into the hands of the company’s president, who sees a golden marketing opportunity. Alec’s catchy slogan catapults the boy to local-celebrity status, and the once-scoffed-at vegetable becomes a popular treat. The illustrations include some humorous details, with pickle-shaped objects adorning the factory’s space, and quivering lines denote Alec’s vulnerability. There’s not much pizzazz in the descriptions, though, to spice the lackluster narration. “His parents were very proud. His friends were very surprised.” Alec is earnest enough, but his campy enthusiasm is a bit hard to choke down and leaves behind a slightly sour aftertaste. (Picture book. 4-8)
BETRAYAL
Nichols, Lee Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59990-569-3 Series: Haunting Emma, Vol. 2 This fast-paced sequel reintroduces teen Emma Vaile, who is the most powerful ghostkeeper to be born in centuries, much to the amazement of her counterparts in the Knell, a secret society that keeps order in the ghost world. Unlike other ghostkeepers, Emma can conjure, communicate with and compel ghosts, which provides hope that she will be able to defeat Neos, a menacing wraith master who is drawn to Emma and will stop at nothing to increase his evil powers. Unfortunately, Emma’s supernatural powers also present major responsibilities and downsides, including preventing her from getting too close to Bennett, her long-time crush and fellow ghostkeeper. Picking up where series opener Deception (2010) left off, Emma continues to hone her skills in preparation for confronting Neos and joins forces with three other ghostkeepers. However, Emma quickly learns that someone has infiltrated her inner circle of friends and finds herself faced with deadly betrayal. This balances against Emma’s very |
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ordinary life as a high-school student. A solid balance of fantasy and mystery together with a well-developed subplot of forbidden love prevent this text from becoming hokey and will keep readers riveted. (Paranormal romance. 14 & up)
TOTALLY HUMAN Why We Look and Act the Way We Do
Nicolson, Cynthia Pratt Illustrator: Eastman, Dianne Kids Can (40 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55453-569-9
Nicolson gathers and answers twodozen fundamental curiosities of the human condition. Why do we laugh, why do we cry? Why sleep, why play? What role do hiccups serve, and, really, what is it about passing gas, in either direction? The author melds the playful with the insightful as she explains the mechanisms behind such elemental human acts as yawning and vomiting, with evolutionary and biological factors sharing the page with some good—and mildly disgusting—color commentary: “Ever wonder why your vomit sometimes contains little chunks of orange stuff…? These are bits of your stomach lining, torn off by the squeezing action.” Yes, well, at least that is less unnerving than the sea cucumber—Nicolson wisely introduces other species into the picture for context and variety—which vomits up its entire stomach and other internal organs. The text is good natured and light on its feet, whether it is laying out the theoretical underpinnings of why we see in color, drumming with urgency in describing the fight-or-flight response or probing the mists of time to gain insight into memory, the pleasure of pets or our response to music. Eastman’s digital photo-collages are nicely attuned to the text, with enough wackiness to bring out the humor yet also built up of parts that call attention to the expository material. (Nonfiction. 6-10)
BED HOG
Noullet, Georgette Illustrator: Slonim, David Marshall Cavendish (24 pp.) $12.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5823-4 Bailey, a little pooch with teddy-bear appeal, gets kicked out of one family member’s bed after another. Just as he gets comfortable in one bed and starts to snooze he hears, “Move over, bed hog dog!” and scampers off to find another place to rest. In the end, he discovers that even though he’s considered a bed hog he is still needed to provide a good cuddle. Using minimal text, the story flows in a comic-book manner, single-and double-page spreads combining with broad horizontal panels to depict poor Bailey’s nocturnal rambles. The charcoal-and-acrylic illustrations lend |
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to the cartoon style, though the broad, smudgy outlines contribute a softness that’s not usually found in comic books and it is also well-suited to a book that’s essentially about cuddling up. Through the artwork Bailey shows different emotions: surprised by a crying baby, contentedly cozy and mildly put out at being displaced—though, true to doggy nature, he bears no grudges. The family is mostly clueless as they try to get a good night’s sleep, too. A serviceable bedtime story that will win over dog lovers, it’s also a great book to help children master their narrative skills, as so much interpretation is left up to readers. (Picture book. 3-6)
SHIMMER
Noël, Alyson Square Fish (192 pp.) $7.99 paperback original March 15, 2011 978-0-312-64825-1 Series: Riley Bloom, Vol. 2 More serious in tone than Radiance (2010), this supernatural adventure story finds perpetually 12-year-old Riley and her 14-year-old guide, Bodhi, first battling then helping Rebecca, an angry ghost child who initially seems to be evil personified. After the death of her mother, Rebecca, the daughter of an unloving plantation owner in the 1700s, was ignored by her father and reared by her family’s uncaring household slaves, leaving her bereft and psychologically damaged. The slaves on the plantation were cruelly and barbarically treated, and they eventually rebelled, killing Rebecca and her father. Rebecca is holding the ghosts of some of these slaves in what could be called memory hell, a place where they must constantly relive their most nightmarish remembrances. Riley, who is dead and existing in the “Here & Now,” is compelled to go where angels fear to tread when Rebecca captures Bodhi and Riley’s faithful dog Buttercup. In the rather tedious adventure that follows, Riley frees her friends, then, with their help, tries to bring forgiveness and peace to the slaves and Rebecca, so they can all cross the bridge to the happiness that awaits on the other side. The backdrop of the story, a slave revolt in the West Indies, adds some historical weight, but the situation remains abstract and the characters only marginally interesting, leaving readers ultimately unengaged. (Ghost story. 9-12)
ROPE ’EM!
Nyikos, Stacy Illustrator: Conover, Bret Kane/Miller (36 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-935279-64-8
their unique skills (herding and roping, respectively) to keep the peace in the ocean’s O.K. Corral. One day, trouble arrives in the menacing form of Barrier Reef Bullface, a big scary shark with a bandage under his snout and two rows of jagged teeth. “Dabnubbit, can’t an outlaw eat in peace?” he declares as he gobbles up some of the local residents. Scout and Virgil each try to capture him, without success. In fact, they’re lucky to escape unscathed. It’s only when they work together—Scout running all around the addled Bullface while Virgil wraps him in ropes— that they are able to corral the bandit. By sundown, the news of Scout and Virgil’s triumph over Bullface has grown “three times the size of even the biggest fish tale.” Conover’s pictures are bright if uninspired, and the message of the book is a solid one, but the text only serviceable. Moreover, the book’s design is awkward, with the words often crammed together at the edges of the pages. Are young readers more likely to be inspired to work together, or to roughhouse? (Picture book. 4-7)
KARMA
Ostlere, Cathy Razorbill/Penguin (500 pp.) $17.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59514-338-9 Canadian author Ostlere’s first novel in verse sweeps across North American and the Indian subcontinent with a force so violent and life altering one might mistake the teen protagonists caught in the vortex of large-scale religious strife and local isolation as slightly sanitized transplants from The Thorn Birds. During the course of about six weeks in late 1984, 15-year-old Maya returns from school in her remote town near Winnipeg to find that her Hindu mother, overwrought by unbearable loneliness, has hanged herself. Maya’s father, a Sikh, then decides to travel with Maya and his wife’s ashes back to India, from which they had emigrated shortly before Maya’s birth because their families would not accept the union of Hindu and Sikh. While in India, Indira Gandhi’s assassination at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards sparks a gruesome religious massacre that separates Maya from her father and threatens to orphan her. The narrative, which, to that point, had consisted of Maya’s verse diary entries, switches to that of the kind boy, Sandeep, who—in a mere month, mind you—helps Maya emerge from her posttraumatic muteness, assisting her in finding her voice, her father and, surprise: true love. Brimming with mature themes, graphic violence and page-ripping twists of plot, this over-caffeinated loosely based historical saga is for sophisticated teens at best. (Fiction/poetry. 15 & up)
Under the sea, two marine “lawmen” tangle with a desperado shark. Scout is a golden seahorse, and Virgil a purple octopus. Both wear cowboy hats and use 322
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“In a departure from his usual sparkly fare, Pfister’s latest is a sweetly simple look at some very deep questions, allowing children the opportunity to delve into some of life’s mysteries.” from questions, questions
MY KITTEN
O’Hair, Margaret Illustrator: Lyon, Tammie Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5811-1 “Dream kitten, / fluff kitten, / sun kitten, / light. / Yawn kitten, / stretch kitten, / sweet kitten, / bright.” Rhythmic, rhyming verse follows a girl and her new kitten through a day of discovery and play. Kitten has breakfast and cleans up. She watches the goldfish swim and hops into a comfy chair. She learns lessons: “No, kitten, / don’t, kitten, / stop. Kitten, / claws,” when she tries to claw the couch. And gets a suggested alternate behavior: “Yes, kitten, / good, kitten, / nice, kitten, / paws,” and is shown to her scratching post. Kitten plays with yarn, chases a squirrel, gets stuck up a tree and has milk before settling down to dream. This feline answer to My Pup (2008) by the same team is just as toe-tapping and easy to read as its canine predecessor. The singsong-y rhyme may seem childish to older readers, but those just starting out will pick up words with the rhythm and repetition. The watercolor-and–colored-pencil illustrations are both spot and full-bleed, and they match the action of the text wonderfully. Pussycat fans will delight in the contented orange kitten and her attentive little girl; repeated readings will be required. (Picture book. 2-5)
INKBLOT Drip, Splat, and Squish Your Way to Creativity Peot, Margaret Illustrator: Peot, Margaret Boyds Mills (56 pp.) $19.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59078-720-5
This exciting road map through an underappreciated art form shows that “[a]nything is possible with inkblots.” Choose supplies, carefully fold your paper and you’re off: “Dab ink. Drop ink. Splat ink. Make puddles and lines and swirls and crisscrosses”; “tip it in different directions as if you were a waiter bobbling and balancing a tray.” Pressure techniques offer seven ways to gently manipulate wet ink inside folded paper. Then unfold—and behold! Expansive suggestions propose wide-ranging possibilities for what an inkblot can resemble, from “the most remarkable tendrils, winter branches, spiky hair, strange grasses, [and] elongated mushrooms” to “kissing fish, sailing ships, faces, flowers, planets, or monsters…. [or] a tornado, a volcano, or a maelstrom.” For hesitant artists, the text provides creative prompts—if your inkblot were a circus act or a culinary dish, what would it be?—and atmospheric questions—is your inkblot fast and splashy or slow and trickly? A secret or a billboard? “Drawing into” the inkblot means adding lines, textures and colors with other media on top of the dry ink. Peot’s |
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own entrancing inkblots (spaceships, landscapes, comics), plus a few guest-blots, illustrate every step, showing how the pure blot becomes the final artwork. Inkblot Heroes (Victor Hugo, Hermann Rorschach) get accolades; readers get clear directions and lively encouragement. Equally cool for kids and parents, art classes or casual groups. (Nonfiction. 10 & up)
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS
Pfister, Marcus Illustrator: Pfister, Marcus Adaptor: Pfister, Marcus and Susan Pearson NorthSouth (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7358-4000-3 In a departure from his usual sparkly fare, Pfister’s latest is a sweetly simple look at some very deep questions, allowing children the opportunity to delve into some of life’s mysteries. The questions, each presented as a rhyming couplet, could have been just as easily formulated by a child as by the author—they feel like the charming queries children seem to make when adults least expect them. “How do seeds know when to grow, / to reach up from the earth below?” “Does a whale make up a song / so other whales will sing along?” Although readers will find no answers here, most have scientific explanations, but others certainly hint toward the divine. And while the text is well written (translated from German), it is the beautiful artwork that will draw readers back for more. Luminous colors and amazing textures stand out against the stark, white backgrounds. While new to Pfister, the technique suits the tone of the text to a T. Each element was cut from thick cardboard, then painted with acrylics and stamped onto paper to complete the individual scenes. The result echoes the mix of simplicity and complexity inherent in each question. In a world that so often emphasizes answers and solid facts, it is refreshing to see a text that encourages questioning, whether realistic or imaginative flights of fancy. (Picture book. 3-7)
COLO’S STORY The Life of One Grand Gorilla Pimm, Nancy Roe Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (80 pp.) $18.95 | Paperback $8.95 978-0-9841554-4-6 Paperback 978-0-9841554-5-3
A surprise baby, the first zoo-born gorilla in the world, put the Columbus, Ohio, zoo on the map. Now well over 50, Colo has entertained zoo-goers, taught researchers, spurred the study and protection of gorillas in the wild and mothered five subsequent generations of gorillas now in zoos around the county. This chronicle of Colo’s life includes stories of important events and plentiful details of her daily routine. A busy design surrounds substantial text and includes numerous |
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“Neat lessons on baking and rural life are nicely folded into Platt’s tale of family love.” from a little bit of love
black-and-white and color photos taken at the zoo. Readers will be drawn in by the events of her birth, including the mouthto-mouth resuscitation needed to revive the newborn baby found on the concrete cage floor. Raised and clothed like a human baby, she eventually became so strong and strong-willed she was caged like the other gorillas in the zoo and provided with a wild-caught mate. Although she never nursed her own babies, she did nurture grandchildren. Over the years, and with the advice of Dian Fossey, who had studied gorilla behavior in the wild, there were changes in the way gorillas were housed in Ohio and around the country. Colo and others were given a new, more interesting environment and allowed to live in family groups. Sidebars explain trading and breeding policies of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, gorilla mothering and gorilla communication. The book ends with a family tree and photo scrapbook. (endnotes, recommended reading, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
IRISH ALPHABET
Pittman, Rickey E. Illustrator: McLennan, Connie Pelican (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58980-745-7 This luck-of-the-Irish alphabet book cites Irish legends and symbols with intertwined one-stanza poems. Each one-page entry features tidbits of Irish culture and lore. “B is for the Blarney Stone / And for great Brian Boru. / Beware the piercing banshee’s cry is / Or else she’ll come for you”; “Q is for the Irish pirate queen; / Grace O’Malley was her name. / She captured many English ships, / And their treasures she did claim.” (Inexplicably, pirate queen Grace O’Malley is pictured on dry land next to a castle and holding a broadsword; there’s not a hint of a seafarer about the picture.) Some letters are stretches, as with most alphabet books: T is for the three colors on the Irish flag; U is for uilleann pipes; Gaelic has no letter X, except in names of Irish towns like Foxrock. And one has to wonder how many children in the book’s audience will care about “J is for James Joyce.” The format is typical, with color illustrations staging each ornately embellished capital letter and a few double-page spreads. One page of back matter provides a two-word glossary, a list of the 32 Irish counties and the lyrics to the song “Molly Malone.” The device works tolerably but more contextualization and greater sensitivity to the audience level would have made the book more useful. (Picture book. 7-10)
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A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE
Platt, Cynthia Illustrator: Whitty, Hannah Tiger Tales(32 pp.) $15.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-095-6
A mouse and her mother go on a culinary adventure. One bright morning, little mouse doesn’t feel like eating cheese, or even the crumbs that her mama has saved for her. She craves something sweet, and mama knows just the thing. “A special treat made of a little bit of love.” The pair, carrying baskets, sets out to gather the ingredients; it’s an odyssey for the little mouse and a learning experience for both her and young listeners. Mama collects some honey in a tiny jar, flour from the nearby mill, huckleberries from the bushes and sweet cream from the dairy. Now they’re ready to make their sweet treat. Little mouse helps mama at every step, her questions and mama’s answers naturally guiding listeners through the process. They put the flour in a mixing bowl and shake the jar of cream to turn it into butter. Next comes the honey: drip, drip, drip. They mix and roll out the dough, put it in a pan, add berries and another layer of dough and pop it in the oven (sealed with a kiss). In no time at all, it’s ready to eat. After declarations of mutual love, they feast on every nibble. Neat lessons on baking and rural life are nicely folded into Platt’s tale of family love. Whitty’s illustrations are well-composed, with telling details and subdued colors. Charming. (Picture book. 3-6)
PANDA-MONIUM!
Platt, Cynthia Illustrator: Vasylenko, Veronica Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $15.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-093-2 Panda parade seeks sweet bamboo. It begins with a single young panda named Beckett, “empty tummy rumbling / he needed some bamboo.” Beckett climbs a hill, where he’s spotted by two other (identical-looking) pandas. Before long...”down the hill they promptly rolled / to follow Beckett as he strolled.” This trio passes a few more pandas, sleeping in a field of flowers and dreaming of bamboo. They join the others, marching through a forest, where four pandas are playing leap-the-bear; naturally, this quartet also joins the line, realizing “they were hungry too / for tall and wobbly, fun and gobbly / sweet bamboo to chew.” Four more pandas are hiding in tall greenery near the road where the 10 pandas pass, and they too join the snaking line. Through it all, Beckett is clueless that he has attracted such a large number of followers. He climbs a gingko tree to look for bamboo, and all the others do likewise; the tree rocks to and fro, then pandas “bounce high and low” (the “panda-monium” of the title). The book’s design highlights some phonetically fun words (blur, shimmy). Vasylenko’s pandas are modeled, with manufacturer’s permission, on Ty, Inc., plush toys, and Beckett himself is a trademarked character. The kirkusreviews.com
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whole is pleasant enough but unmemorable—probably not even enough to sell a soft toy or two. (Picture book. 3-6)
THE WITCH OF BLOOR STREET
Pollock, Beth Lorimer Press (120 pp.) $8.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-55277-536-3 “I’m honestly not sure how I ended up outside with a ladder, a cat, and a bag of road salt.” Bookish sixth-grader Magnolia, called Maggie, straddles that spot between childhood and being a teenager. She believes in witches, gargoyles and dragons, and, over and over, her imagination causes her friends to ask, “How do you come up with these ideas? The well-meaning girl explores her Bloor Street (Toronto) neighborhood with best friend Sasha while avoiding her nemesis, Jarrett Johnson. After bravely entering a “haunted house” (really a tattoo parlor), Maggie is convinced that its proprietor is a witch who has cast a spell on her. Her bad luck rains down in buckets, and Maggie tries all sorts of crazy curse-reversing cures before doing what she should have done in the first place. Maggie’s understanding teacher, Mrs. Fedorchuk, whose e-mails begin each chapter, gently nudges Maggie to find what she is best at. The rich cast of secondary characters, including Maggie’s parents and small circle of understanding friends, help flesh out this satisfying story, which is told in Maggie’s humorous, self-deprecating voice. Because Maggie is a particularly innocent sixth grader, readers as young as third grade can enjoy this window into the middle-school world and will hope to have friends like Magnolia and Sasha. (Fiction. 9-12)
HAPPY ENDINGS A Story About Suffixes Pulver, Robin Illustrator: Reed, Lynn Rowe Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2296-8
The team that taught students about nouns and verbs, punctuation and silent letters now tackles suffixes…almost literally. On the last day of school, when Mr. Wright announces, “After lunch and our read-aloud, we’ll tackle word endings,” the anthropomorphized suffixes head to the gym to get into shape for the coming melee. Meanwhile, the kids’ atrocious behavior in the lunchroom leads Mr. Wright to skip the read-aloud and go directly to the lesson. Except the lesson has disappeared. Threatened with no summer vacation unless they find the word endings, the kids hang (suffix-less) wanted posters all over the school. Reassured of the students’ good intentions, the suffixes leave clues for them to decode and thus find them, saving not only the kids’ educations but summer |
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vacation as well. As in the previous titles, the words in the text are printed in two colors, allowing the suffixes to stand out from the rest of the text. Reed’s now-signature acrylic-and-digital illustrations are as quirky and colorful as ever. Backmatter includes a page of spelling rules for adding endings to words and a page delineating some different suffixes and how their additions change the root word. While this may not be as strong as the previous titles from this duo, still it is a good addition to their language-arts series. (Picture book. 6-8)
LEMONADE And Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word Raczka, Bob Illustrator: Doniger, Nancy Roaring Brook (48 pp.) $16.99 | March 15, 2011 978-1-59643-541-4
Fresh off his engaging Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys (illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, 2010) and inspired by the work of Andrew Russ, Raczka continues to dabble in short lyric forms, here experimenting with images conjured up by breaking down a single word. The smaller components that comprise the subsequent free-verse poem read left to right, cascading down the page while maintaining the same horizontal letter positions as in the original word. For example, “vacation” yields “ac tion / i n / a / va n,” alongside Doniger’s spare three-color drawing of a family and a rabbit traveling through the countryside in a van with a canoe on the roof. For readers who find the spatiality of the lettering a challenge for comprehension, Raczka sets the poem in more standard format, “vacation / action / in / a / van,” on the following page. While these 22 poems are uniformly clever, some, like “earthworms”—“a / short / storm / worms / here / worms / there / wear / shoes”—are more successful than others, such as “flowers”—“we slow / for / free / wows”—both in their playfulness and in evoking the suggestive depths of language. Fun as a prompt for poetic exploration but less fulfilling as a stand-alone volume. (Poetry. 8-12)
THE BEAR WHO SHARED
Rayner, Catherine Illustrator: Rayner, Catherine Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3576-7
Three forest animals square off over a juicy piece of fruit but avert conflict. Norris the bear spots a luscious plorringe (“the best fruit of all”) hanging tenuously from a branch. “Norris [is] wise” and knows that if he just waits patiently under the tree, something wonderful will happen. There’s a glitch, however: Tulip the mouse and Violet the raccoon also covet the luscious plorringe, which |
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“With searing realism, debut author Restrepo describes Nora’s anger, desperation and loss of faith when she and her mother arrive…in Houston to a barrio that’s characterized by racial division, gangs, violence and filthy living conditions.” from illegal
they spy from a branch above. A standoff ensues; when the plorringe finally falls from the tree, Norris pounces. But remember, he’s wise; he shares his juicy treat with his two new friends. Rayner’s quirky illustrations are the real star of the book; deceptively basic compositions with barely-there watercolor strokes that manage to look simultaneously haphazard and carefully applied. This former quality should invite children to emulate the author/illustrator, just as the minimal text is accessible to the very youngest readers. Accessible doesn’t mean dull, though. The author uses sensuous language to communicate at a visceral level—”[Norris] shared the delicious, sun-kissed, soft-ascotton-candy plorringe”—and variations in type size and line breaks guide readers through the narration perfectly. Best of all, Rayner almost makes us believe that plorringes exist. Simple and sublime. (Picture book. 3-6)
ILLEGAL
Restrepo, Bettina Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $16.99 | March 8, 2011 978-0-06-195342-2 When Nora’s dad left their small Mexican town, Cedula, to make money for the family in the United States, he promised to be back for her 15th birthday quinceañera celebration. Now three years later, Cedula, without “even a stinking drug dealer in this town to spread the cash around,” has closed its schools, families are moving away and 14-year-old Nora worries her father won’t return in time. When his money stops arriving, her family risks losing its land and she hears a voice telling her to flee, Nora convinces her mother to use their savings to be smuggled across the border to look for him. With searing realism, debut author Restrepo describes Nora’s anger, desperation and loss of faith when she and her mother arrive, barely alive in the back of a fruit truck, in Houston to a barrio that’s characterized by racial division, gangs, violence and filthy living conditions. Giving up her dreams about her father’s promise and American prosperity, Nora simply wants to find the truth and survive in her foreign surroundings. Newfound friends, struggling with their own poverty and gang threats, and community, made up of all kinds of outsiders, combine with her own indomitable spirit to give her the courage to fight to belong. This memorable coming-of-age story will awaken readers to the overlooked struggles of immigrants. (glossary) (Fiction. YA)
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THE LIAR SOCIETY
Roecker, Lisa and Laura Roecker Sourcebooks Fire (368 pp.) $9.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-4022-5633-2 Secret societies dominate a posh co-educational private school in this suspenseful, possibly supernatural mystery. One or both of those societies may be responsible for the death of a girl, or so 15-year-old Kate believes. Kate’s best friend, Grace, was killed in a fire under mysterious circumstances a year earlier. When she gets an e-mail from her dead friend, Kate believes Grace is asking for justice and begins to investigate what really happened. The Roeckers populate the school with the standard drop-dead handsome rich guys and a few supermodel-style girls, but Kate finds herself more attracted to dangerous, scruffy Liam. Then there’s her annoying next-door neighbor, nerdy Seth, who has an obvious crush on her. Despite the difficulties they cause, the two help her so much that at last she enlists them in her quest. Tension mounts when the trio finds secret areas in the school and starts to track down who was really responsible on the night of the fire. A final confrontation solves the mystery, but can Kate really bring the culprit to justice? And is Grace’s ghost really haunting her? The authors create lively and memorable characters and keep the action moving in their lengthy whodunit; Kate’s interest in Latin adds an educational element. Clearly, the Roeckers had fun writing their story. Young mystery lovers may enjoy it just as much. (Mystery. 12-16)
LOST IN THE RIVER OF GRASS
Rorby, Ginny Carolrhoda (264 pp.) $17.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7613-5685-1
Thirteen-year-old Sarah’s new classmates at Glades Academy don’t welcome her—she’s there on scholarship, and her mother works in the school cafeteria. On a field trip to the Everglades, Sarah seizes the chance to get away by sneaking off on an airboat ride through the saw-grass marsh with the guide’s 15-year-old son, Andy, taking only her backpack, a camera and some mosquito spray. A stop at a remote fishing camp ends in disaster when the boat sinks, and they’re stranded, surrounded by alligators and snakes, with half a bottle of Gatorade and a can of SPAM. Andy knows what they’re up against, but Sarah refuses to believe that they must leave the tiny island to trudge the 10 miles back to land. Wildlife and vegetation are vividly described; Sarah’s fear is palpable in scenes of near-disaster, and readers will cheer when she and Andy make it safely out of the swamp after five days. However, the first-person narrative is uneven, marred by gaps kirkusreviews.com
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that make it hard to fully visualize some situations, and there are too few transitions to support some rather sudden instances of closeness between Sarah and Andy. Rorby cleverly offers only subtle hints that Sarah is African-American and Andy is white until late in the story, adding depth to this survival story framed within the story of an outsider. (Adventure. 12-14)
FERRET FUN
Rostoker-Gruber, Karen Illustrator: Rátz de Tagyos, Paul Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $17.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5817-3 Fudge and Einstein were perfectly happy ferrets until Andrea, their owner, brought a surprise visitor into the house. Marvel, a chunky calico cat, is going to stay with them while her owner is away. Marvel has never seen a ferret. She knows Fudge and Einstein aren’t cats. She knows they aren’t dogs. They must be... Rats! Marvel loves to eat rats. No amount of discussion changes her mind. She breaks into their cage—but Andrea comes back in time to save the ferrets. What are a couple of enterprising ferrets to do? Hide? She’d find them. Ignore her? She’d bug them. Run away? There are no raisins in the wild! When they hit upon a plan to deal with the feline bully, it works perfectly…maybe too perfectly. Fudge and Einstein decide a friend is more helpful (and fun) than a frightened enemy (especially when it means raisins and a good game of chase). Rostoker-Gruber’s tale of standing up to bullies might not offer any practical advice beyond the obvious, but children will identify with Fudge and Einstein’s situation. Rátz de Tagyos’s magic-marker–and-ink graphic-novel–style illustrations are the real draw; the bouncy, fanged trio are a terrific balance between Saturday morning cartoon and real animals. Just enough lesson hidden in the fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
GEMINI BITES
Ryan, Patrick Scholastic (240 pp.) $17.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-545-22128-3 Sparks fly when the mysterious, smooth-talking, eye-liner’d Garret Johnson moves in for a month with the very Bradylike household of sparring twins Kyle and Judy Renneker. It’s unclear at the outset as to why the twins hate each other so much—all readers know is that Kyle is openly gay and Judy is seemingly pursuing a cute boy by carrying around a Bible. Garret, however, is an artist-in-training who wears all black and has strange phone conversations with someone he claims is his vampire mentor. Both twins seem dubious, but he somehow manages to seduce them into modeling for his sketches in |
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various stages of undress. Soon, the twins are at each other’s throats trying to decide which one he likes the best. What Ryan loses in hackneyed plotting he makes up for in character development. Garret, Kyle and Judy, as well as the rest of the Renneker family, are all sharply portrayed, and readers will definitely feel a sense of belonging as they read their story. Ryan also injects plenty of lusty longing and (mostly tame but for the language is) seduction scenes that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The conclusion isn’t quite as much fun as the characters’ journeys, but readers will definitely have lots to think about once they’ve finished. (Romantic thriller. 14 & up)
ONE LITTLE BLUEBERRY
Salzano, Tammi Illustrator: Whelan, Kat Tiger Tales (24 pp.) $12.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-859-4
One lone blueberry’s journey from bush to treat forms the narrative thread for this nimble counting tale. The little fruit gains momentum as it rolls across the fields and leaves a growing group of insects in its wake. As the bugs multiply, their action follows suit, moving from passive observation to an animated protest at the disturbance. Two red ants point as the food flies past, while caterpillars stretch up into the air when they spy the bouncing berry. Spare declarative phrases maintain a lively pace; largely unforced rhymes clip along as the characters build from one to 10. Enthusiastic dialogue adds energy. “Nine hungry spiders crawled closer to their treat. / Ten hopping grasshoppers said, ‘Hey, it’s time to eat!’ ” Before the ravenous creatures can pounce, a speedy intruder snatches the fruit into the sky. Each smiling character reflects the chipper tone throughout, and even the berry thief becomes more friend than foe. Predominant backgrounds of blues and greens provide variation through shading. Glossy spot lamination showcases the blueberry, adding textured shine to the expansive scenes, and sturdy cardstock backing supports the sprawling grass and vast blue sky. Breezy and sweet fare. (Picture book. 1-4)
THE LUCY MAN The Scientist Who Found the Most Famous Fossil Ever Saucier, C.A.P. Prometheus Books (136 pp.) $16.00 paperback original March 1, 2011 978-1-61614-433-3
Donald C. Johanson is not a household name, but this flattering biography makes a convincing case that the paleoanthropologist’s discoveries are as influential and significant as Charles Darwin’s work. Working in Ethiopia in 1974 at the beginning of his career, |
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Johanson discovered a 3.2 million–year-old skeleton he christened Lucy, which, until the 1990s, was the oldest and best preserved skeleton of an upright human ancestor ever found. Along with the fame that Lucy’s discovery brought came much controversy; many scientists initially resisted the change Johanson’s discovery brought to the human family tree. Saucier notes that “[g]reat controversy often erupts in paleoanthropology when a new species is found,” and disagreements can end friendships, as it did with Johanson and Mary and Richard Leakey. In addition to fascinating insights about the internal politics among scientists, the author also offers readers an intimate procedural look at a scientist’s methods and process of working in the field and the laboratory. The text, abundantly illustrated with photographs, maps and charts, is well-organized and engaging, but the discussions of scientific discoveries and theories would have been better served by the inclusion of a glossary. Saucier ably captures Johanson’s love for his work and passion for sharing it with others. (bibliography, index) (Biography. 12 & up)
NOODLE AND LOU
Scanlon, Liz Garton Illustrator: Howard, Arthur Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $15.99 | March 8, 2011 978-1-4424-0288-1 Odd couples abound in children’s stories, but somehow the notion of a chirpy blue jay being friends with a (succulent, pink, wiggly) worm may be a hard one to, um, get off the ground. Those willing to suspend their disbelief, however, will enjoy this brisk, rhyming tale of solid support and relentless esteem-building. Noodle the worm, pictured in a baseball cap worn backward, wakes one morning feeling low. He knows where to turn, though, and calls out for Lou, who counters his every complaint with a cheery compliment. By the end, Noodle is feeling pretty darned good about himself—and even better about his best friend, who’s managed to give him a new perspective and turn his day around. Howard’s cartoon-style illustrations match the bouncy rhythm of Scanlon’s couplets perfectly and keep the tone light. Lou has scratchy eyebrows and big feet and sports a sweet smile on his sharp beak. Noodle’s squiggly body language manages to effectively convey his changing emotions, and a few big-eyed bugs in the background provide additional visual appeal. Odds are good that even the littlest listeners can recognize how much having a good buddy can improve a bad mood, but it seems likely that adults will pick this up for the message while kids will prefer to pore over the pictures. Chirpy, instructive and fun. (Picture book. 3-6)
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TO TIMBUKTU
Scieszka, Casey Illustrator: Weinberg, Steven Roaring Brook (496 pp.) $19.99 paperback original March 29, 2011 978-1-59643-527-8 Heading into adulthood from the younger end of Eat, Pray, Love territory, two young college grads with itchy feet take most of a double wanderjahr to test their coupledom overseas. In quick, good-humored black-and-white sketches that occupy at least half of nearly every page, Weinberg not only evokes a sense of place in depicting apartments and street scenes but displays an unusual ability to capture fleeting expressions, poses and the emotional tenor of momentary encounters. The two build funds of self-confidence teaching English to children in Beijing, dawdle their way through Southeast Asia, then settle in Mali for most of a year for a Fulbright-funded research project. Occasional brushes with police, illness and hostile locals or disenchanted fellow travelers aside, Scieszka maintains an upbeat tone in her episodic, present-tense travelogue—noting the destructive effects of politics, poverty and tourism but focusing on the pleasures of new friends, new foods, adapting to local conditions, being grownups (“It’s liberating! It’s…full of pressure”) and finding reasons to get “out of bed on the other side of the world even when it’s raining, you haven’t made any friends yet and you’ve got the travel shits like whoa.” Newly fledged adults (and even those with plenty of mileage under their wings) will find both entertainment and perhaps a dollop of inspiration. (Travel memoir. 16 & up, adult)
UPGRADE U
Simone, Ni-Ni Kensington (240 pp.) $9.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7582-4191-7 Seven McKnight, introduced in Shortie Like Mine (2008), moves from Newark, N.J., to New Orleans, La., to join her best friend Shae and boyfriend Josiah at Stiles University in this sometimes raucous, sometimes sentimental relationship story. Problem is, Josiah hasn’t returned any of Seven’s many texts or phone calls, and Seven is afraid she’s becoming that chick. As Seven and Josiah cycle through fighting and making up, Seven finds support in her band of new and old friends: insightful Shae; bold, flirtatious and social-networking– obsessed Khya and boa-clad next-door neighbor Courtney, who inserts himself into practically every conversation and outing. When Seven meets Zaire, a seemingly forthright, sophisticated New Orleans native, a love triangle develops—or is that a love quadrangle? Slang and pop-culture references abound in the rapid-fire dialogue. Each chapter begins with a quote from a kirkusreviews.com
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“Since [the protagonists] are left sharing a barn with an elephant who is about to give birth as a vicious escaped leopard roams outside, readers are really going to want to find out what happens next.” from storm runners
pop song, and Seven quotes liberally from Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” in one of her many fights with Josiah. Amidst the drama, heavier themes also emerge, including a pregnancy scare, the trauma of Hurricane Katrina and the potential consequences of keeping one’s feelings bottled up. Snappy, smart and perfect for fans of Simone’s earlier novels or L. Divine’s Drama High series. (Urban chick-lit. 14 & up)
STORM RUNNERS
Smith, Roland Scholastic (160 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-545-08175-7 Series: Storm Runners, Vol. 1 Readers will really feel blasts of wind, water and flying debris in this disaster tale—at least until the narrative cuts off in mid-howl. As (fictional) Hurricane Emily moves toward Florida and his father, an itinerant contractor specializing in weather-disaster prep and repairs, heads for its expected landfall, Chase takes up temporary residence at a “farm” that turns out to be a circus’ winter quarters. Hardly has he reported to the local school, though, than the storm makes a sudden turn and surge that strands him, along with classmates Nicole and Rashawn, in a wrecked bus on a crumbling levee. Writing in clipped prose and dialogue, Smith quickly plunges the three refugees into a desperate struggle to survive floods, darkness, howling gales and even an encounter with a wily alligator on the way to what they hope will be safety. Though the author’s practice of repeatedly cutting away to other characters’ points of view distracts from rather than tightens the suspense, and he abruptly chops off the narrative on a cliffhanger as the storm’s eye passes, Chase and his friends get repeated opportunities to show that they’re made of sturdy stuff. Since they are left sharing a barn with an elephant who is about to give birth as a vicious escaped leopard roams outside, readers are really going to want to find out what happens next. (Adventure. 11-13)
THE SUNFLOWER SWORD
Sperring, Mark Illustrator: Latimer, Miria Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7613-7486-2
knight knows a flower won’t slay a dragon, but he plays the day away on Dragon Hill, happy in his pretend world. The bright and cheery artwork seamlessly combines the current-day characters with this land of imagination. With flames of fire and sharp white teeth, a real dragon appears, but it doesn’t quite strike fear into the heart. The cuddly-looking, bright-orange behemoth takes the flower in his tiny arms and makes a new friend. The boy and his dragon “play much better games than fighting” from then on, which prompts the adult knights to start offering up sunflowers as well. A feel-good story for peace-loving families, it acknowledges the truism that boys tend to turn anything into weapons. Yet the symbolic dove on every page provides hope that one day, swords will be turned into plowshares. Or at least into a gift for a new friend. (Picture book. 4-8)
NOW IT IS SUMMER
Spinelli, Eileen Illustrator: DePalma, Mary Newell Eerdmans (32 pp.) $16.00 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8028-5340-0 Reprising the theme of Now It Is Winter (2004) this companion volume is likewise (as Kirkus wrote at the time) “a gentle paean to living in the now.” Constructed as a back-and-forth between a young mouse who yearns for cinnamon muffins, jack-o’-lanterns, piles of leaves, school’s start and other tokens of autumn, and his mother’s counter-invitations to enjoy fresh peaches, a picnic on the beach, a glass of cold lemonade and like pleasures of summer, Spinelli’s narrative is less about realistic dialogue than about poetic arrangements of sounds and rhythms: “Will it be autumn soon? / Will a leafy breeze waken me / by ruffling the curtains at my window? / Will it dapple the air with apple-y scent? / Soon?” Clad in overalls or sun dresses and sporting fur in a multiethnic variety of colors, the saucer-eared clan in DePalma’s sweet illustrations enjoys its outdoorsy summer idyll in both quiet and rowdy ways as the interchange continues, the skies gradually darken to starry blues, and at last mother and child “go barefoot down the stairs / and out into the shimmery, summery night” for some quality time together. The soft visual and verbal cadences make this as apt for bedtime reading as for providing reassurance to impatient young mouselings that present joys will indeed in time give way to future ones. (Picture book. 5-7)
A little knight, creatively costumed with household items such as a colander helmet, rubber gloves and cowboy boots, wants to be “big like the other knights and fight like the other knights and have a sword like the other knights.” His mother, with charming wide-set eyes that match her son’s, disapproves. She gives him a large sunflower as consolation, which the boy “whooshe[s] and swooshe[s]” through the air. The pint-sized |
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“A wacky roadway of discovery awaits readers in Stein and Staake’s affectionate tribute to the automobile and its infinite design possibilities.” from cars galore
SMALL SAUL
Spires, Ashley Illustrator: Spires, Ashley Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55453-503-3 Small Saul’s in love with the sea. Unfortunately, his attachment to things maritime doesn’t get him past the Navy’s height requirement. Pirates aren’t as picky, so Saul enrolls in Pirate College. He doesn’t excel in any classes: too easily distracted in Treasure Map Interpretation, lacks focus in Looting: The Basics. Perseverance nets him his pirating diploma but doesn’t get him a berth on any ship…except The Rusty Squid. In no time, his shipmates discover Saul’s not your average pirate. He offers baked goods to kidnapped ladies and breath mints to the Captain. Saul knows there are three things pirates love: the ship, being tough and lots of treasure. His frilly shipimprovement project…lands him head down in a bilge-bucket. He can’t fight to achieve that tough look, so he tries a tattoo…a bunny. While distracted by pondering the possibilities of treasure acquisition, Saul’s knocked off the ship by the Captain. It’s not long before the pirates realize that, different though he is, Saul’s a treasure rare as gold. Thankfully, he’s quick to forgive and ready with more baked goods. Spires’ tale of an unconventional pirate might travel familiar ground, but her dry humor, so wonderfully displayed in the Binky graphic novels, elevates Saul to great heights. The cartoon watercolor illustrations are always hilariously at odds with the understated text. Charrrhming. (Picture book. 5-8)
MONSTERS Mind Your Manners
Spurr, Elizabeth Illustrator: Scales, Simon Whitman (24 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8075-5251-3
Awkward rhymes, predictable situations and muddy illustrations combine to create a didactic look at bad behavior. Hairy horned monsters, one with multiple eyes, all with goofy grins, descend upon a hapless, unnamed girl and boy—presumably brother and sister. They invade the kids’ old-fashioned–looking house and promptly make a mess, painting on the walls, sliding on the floors and playing a game of indoor baseball. The monsters then take their bad behavior on the road—to the park, on a bus, to a school classroom and cafeteria (with the inevitable burping) and home again, where they discover the result of their rudeness: They miss the bedtime story. The first sentence typifies the bumpy rhythm of the text: “Look out, children, / here they come, / bringing pandemonium.” A later description— “MONSTERS despise tidiness. / They’ve made this room a / ghastly mess”—exemplifies the clumsy rhymes. Scales’ illustrations appear to have been created digitally and feature bright 330
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colors and cartoon-y expressions. Unfortunately, the attempt to create a sense of action by blurring outlines means that many of the pictures wind up looking smudged and messy. Wide-eyed kids mostly just stand around looking dismayed and are virtually indistinguishable, although some do have slightly darker skin tones. The monsters, meanwhile, never live up to the (limited) promise of the premise. In short: monstrously dreadful. (Picture book. 4-6)
MUSIC BY MORGAN
Staunton, Ted Illustrator: Slavin, Bill Formac (64 pp.) $5.95 paperback original March 1, 2011 978-0-88780-926-2
When his parents sign him up for floor hockey, which he hates, thirdgrader Morgan hesitatingly agrees to his friend Aldeen’s plan to switch roles. She will play hockey and he will take piano lessons. Their masquerade is difficult to sustain. This is the author’s tenth book about chunky Morgan, his athletic friend Charlie and Aldeen, “the Godzilla of Grade Three,” characters who will feel familiar even to those who have not read the other stories. In this first-person, plot-driven narrative, told in mostly believable dialogue, Aldeen and Morgan get into increasingly difficult situations, moving toward the point when their deception is revealed and Morgan’s parents capitulate, letting him continue with music. The setting is generic—a house with a driveway and basement, a schoolyard and the community center. This is part of the Canadian publisher’s First Novels nine aimed at early readers ready for something slightly more substantial. The print is good-sized and heavily leaded; vocabulary is breezy and appropriate. “Aldeen’s eyes go all squinchy. ‘Then I’ll smoosh you into a hockey puck.’ ” Each of the ten short chapters includes one full-page black-and-white cartoon illustration. These effectively portray the characters and highlight important moments. These provide accessible, comfortable stories for students who’ve moved beyond early readers but are not ready for much greater length or more complexity. (Fiction. 6-9)
CARS GALORE
Stein, Peter Illustrator: Staake, Bob Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4743-8 A wacky roadway of discovery awaits readers in Stein and Staake’s affectionate tribute to the automobile and its infinite design possibilities. With Seusslike rhymes and silliness, they create a world of diverse vehicles, each an extension of its owner and an kirkusreviews.com
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expression of individuality. Comical cars zoom by with playful text in tow: “Rusty, dusty, / hunk-of-junk car. / Stinky, yucky, / smells-like-a-skunk car.” Staake anchors most illustrations with a black, energetic roadway full of merges, curves, loops and angles. Each spread contains an intriguing pattern, offering new objects for discovery with each turn of the page. Auto-lovers will adore his whimsical illustrations—done in a ’50s modern design aesthetic—of tractors, tow trucks, race and rocket cars, and all will find humor in his expressive characters. His sense of fun extends beyond fanciful car designs; readers will love spotting the occasional alligator, giraffe or rhino behind the wheel. The eminently chantable text will likely make this a fast favorite with lovers of things that go, so be ready for many round trips. One bright and lively ride. (Picture book. 3-6)
LIKE PICKLE JUICE ON A COOKIE
Sternburg, Julie Illustrator: Cordell, Matthew Amulet/Abrams (128 pp.) $14.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8109-8424-0 When Bibi, her first and favorite babysitter, moves away, it takes all of August for 8-year-old Eleanor to get beyond her sense of loss and get used to a new caretaker. Her parents grieve, too; her mother even takes some time off work. But, as is inevitable in a two-income family, eventually a new sitter appears. Natalie is sensible and understanding. They find new activities to do together, including setting up a lemonade stand outside Eleanor’s Brooklyn apartment building, waiting for Val, the mail carrier, and taking pictures of flowers with Natalie’s camera. Gradually Eleanor adjusts, September comes, her new teacher writes a welcoming letter, her best friend returns from summer vacation and third grade starts smoothly. Best of all, Val brings a loving letter from Bibi in Florida. While the story is relatively lengthy, each chapter is a self-contained episode, written simply and presented in short lines, accessible to those still struggling with the printed word. Cordell’s gray-scale line drawings reflect the action and help break up the text on almost every page. This first novel is a promising debut. Eleanor’s concerns, not only about her babysitter, but also about playmates, friends and a new school year will be familiar to readers, who will look forward to hearing more about her life. (Fiction. 7-9)
ROLY-POLY EGG
Stileman, Kali Illustrator: Stileman, Kali Tiger Tales (32 pp.) $12.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-852-5
of fiery red paint, Splotch the bird personifies her name. She learns the true testament of a mother’s love after she lays a magnificent polka-dotted egg. “It was small—yes, spotty—yes, and absolutely perfect in every way!” In her utter joy, she bounces her branch—and the egg falls off into the lush jungle habitat. Met with ambivalence by some and threat from others, the little one is tossed until it’s gently returned to her grateful mom. A respite might seem to be in order, but then a startling sound signifies tremendous change: “Crack! Crack! Crack!” Splotch’s protruding eyes dominate each animated expression. Her scrawny patterned legs resemble her offspring’s ultimate zany appearance, and the egg’s decoration mirrors the wild chick inside. Individual colored dots from brilliant greens to dramatic fuchsias connect the endpapers to the unique babe. Clean gray dashes provide a physical indicator of the remarkable journey, and a whimsical butterfly remains a silent sidekick throughout. Paint streaks collide with textured papers, creating a bright array of rainbow hues. Spare, crisp sentences describe each action, leaving lots of room for expansion in the bold mixed-media spreads. Vibrant designs breathe life into this mama, highlighting one endearing fowl with a ferocious heart. (Picture book. 3-6)
I’LL BE THERE
Stott, Ann Illustrator: Phelan, Matt Candlewick (32 pp.) $14.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4711-7 This companion book to Always (2008) traverses familiar picture-book territory. A young boy, probably primary-school age, clambers on a stone wall while his mother follows alongside in the grass. Their conversation begins, “Did you push me in a carriage when I was a baby?” Mother flashes back to all the things she did for her son as an infant: pushing him on a swing, feeding him “squished peas” and giving him “bubble baths in the kitchen sink.” She then reminds him that he is older and can now do those things on his own. The spare but often bland text is rescued by Phelan’s deft use of watercolor, which injects sly humor into the boy’s independent actions. From a delightfully mismatched outfit to an exuberant mess of a breakfast for mom, the red-haired tyke aims to balance his new skills and confidence with assurance that his mother will always “be there.” And he does—bravely jumping from the wall without any help while watchful mom proudly looks on. The brief text coupled with quiet, warm illustrations is best suited for young preschoolers but lacks the power of the classic Guess How Much I Love You or Mama, Do You Love Me? (Picture book. 2-4)
Mother love leads to near tragedy in this tale of an egg. Rendered in smears |
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YOU JUST CAN’T HELP IT! Your Guide to the Wild and Wacky World of Human Behavior
Szpirglas, Jeff Illustrator: Holinaty, Josh Maple Tree Press (96 pp.) $22.95 | $10.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-1-926818-07-8 paper 978-1-926818-08-5
“A human is a pretty wild thing,” argues the author of this collection of curious facts and intriguing studies about human behavior. With a breezy text supported by a lively design, the author of Gross Universe (2004) again presents science in a way certain to attract middle-grade and middle-school readers. Chapters on the senses, emotions, communication and interactions with other human beings cover a variety of topics, each on headlined double-page spreads. Each chapter includes a description of “a cool study” organized into appropriate sections: question, observation, experiment (illustrated with step by step cartoons), results and summary. “Are you an animal?” sidebars describe comparable animal behavior. From dirty diapers to canned laughter to body language, he finds topics that both appeal and enlighten. Directly addressing readers, he invites participation by asking questions—“How are you sitting right now?” “Does smell affect your dreams?” “Does your heart race when….?”—and draws them in further with do-it-yourself experiments. A section on good manners even includes guidelines for behavior at a concert—differentiating between classical and rock. The digital art includes bits of photographs, line drawings, the use of color and shapes to help organize the print and plenty of symbols. No specific sources are cited, but an extensive list of experts is acknowledged. Popular science through and through, you can’t help enjoying this. (index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)
I SURVIVED HURRICANE KATRINA, 2005
Tarshis, Lauren Illustrator: Dawson, Scott Scholastic (112 pp.) $16.99 | $4.99 paperback original | March 1, 2011 978-0-545-20689-1 paper 970-0-545-20696-9 Series: I Survived, Vol. 3
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LARUE ACROSS AMERICA Postcards From the Vacation
Teague, Mark Illustrator: Teague, Mark Scholastic (40 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-439-91502-1
Ike, that cute, crafty canine, is back in his fourth adventure. A planned cruise trip with his owner, Mrs. LaRue, is foiled when a neighbor lands in the hospital, stranding her two cats. Cruise ship becomes road trip across the country with the two cats creating a cat-as-trophy at each new juncture. Ike’s postcards to the neighbor become increasingly desperate. From Pea Gravel, S.D., he writes: “The local postmaster claims it would be illegal for me to send live cats through the mail.” Crossing the prairie, Ike is in the back seat of the car holding two signs: “Bad Cats! S.O.S.” When Mrs. LaRue’s car conks out in the desert, a First Mate on a cruise ship rescues them. Cleverly designed, the comic illustrations spare no whisker for laugh-out-loud humor, especially the feline facial expressions—sticking out their tongues, shooting slingshots. As in previous outings, Teague plays black-and-white scenes (dogs are colorblind, don’t you know) against full-color acrylics to great effect. The endpapers are a map of the United States with their (incredibly illogical) route marked. This furry fiasco is fabulous fun. No pussyfooting here, just the cat’s meow of a doggie’s tale of woe. Bone Voyage. (Picture book. 4-9)
MONKEY & ELEPHANT’S WORST FIGHT EVER!
Tarshis (I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912, 2010, etc.) again transforms a historical event into a fast-paced adventure story appropriate for lower elementary students. This tale begins on that fateful day, Monday, August 29, 2005. Eleven-year old Bobby Tucker is hanging on to an oak tree trying to survive the floodwaters in the Lower Ninth Ward. After the dramatic opening scene, readers are taken back one day in time, to August 28. Life in the Lower Ninth is humming along 332
as usual that day—Bobby and his friend Jay excitedly planning to send in an entry to a nationwide Create a Superhero contest—until evacuation orders convince Bobby’s family to head of town. Unfortunately, Bobby’s little sister gets so ill that the family has to return home and try to ride out the storm. The author’s research and respect for the survivors of Katrina make this a realistic and gripping account that steers clear of sensationalism and sentimentality. Following the main text are “After the Storm: Questions about Katrina” and “Facts about Hurricane Katrina,” both ideal for setting young readers who have been enthralled by Bobby’s story on a path to discovering more about the true story of Katrina and its aftermath. (Historical fiction. 7-10)
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Townsend, Michael Illustrator: Townsend, Michael Knopf (40 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 | March 8, 2011 978-0-375-85717-1 PLB 978-0-375-95717-8 One evening, Monkey decides to surprise his best friend, Elephant, with a tray of cupcakes. When he arrives at Elephant’s house, he kirkusreviews.com
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“Unfolding with the implacable clarity of the natural world Louise reveres, the novel proves that a quiet story can be as gripping as the busiest actionpacked narrative—and with more staying power.” from the sundown rule
thinks he sees a costume party going on inside. Monkey runs away in tears. Why wasn’t he invited? His sadness turns to anger, and he sneaks into Elephant’s house to deep-freeze all of Elephant’s toys. So Elephant gets Monkey back by giving the multitudinous Bunny family the key to Monkey’s house, and Monkey gets Elephant back by painting a silly face on his rump when he’s asleep…it only gets worse and louder and more violent! The other animals on the island can’t stand it, so they devise an ingenious plan to get the two best friends back together. After recriminations (“You froze my toys!”) come realizations (“I should have just asked you about it!”), hugs and apologies, and all goes nearly back to normal. Townsend’s tale of a fight fueled by misunderstanding and then revenge is told in a hybrid of graphic panels and traditional full-page and spot illustrations. The heavy-line cartoon illustrations populated by simple, rubber-limbed characters relate the instructive tale with pitchperfect notes of humor and silliness that never approach the didactic. (Picture book. 4-8)
THE SUNDOWN RULE
Townsend, Wendy namelos (128 pp.) $18.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-60898-099-4
This spare, lovely novel concerns that moment in childhood, at once universal and utterly lonely, when one is forced to recognize that all life is mortal. Living in rural Michigan with her naturalist father and her beloved cat, Cash, Louise has developed a deep affinity for the natural world and its creatures, rescuing baby animals and injured wildlife, like the heron bitten by a snapping turtle. But she abides (sometimes reluctantly) by Dad’s Sundown Rule: At day’s end, she must return the animals where she found them. When Dad lands a National Geographic assignment in Brazil, he leaves Louise with his sister and her husband in the suburbs. Both are kind, but Aunt Kay is allergic to animals, so Cash must stay behind and Louise can’t bring the baby rabbit and raccoon she rescues into their house. Louise finds a sympathetic friend in Sarah but resists the teaching of Sarah’s church that animals have no souls, which Louise finds especially cruel after she experiences a devastating loss. Her efforts to understand and make peace with what has happened will give new meaning to the Sundown Rule. Unfolding with the implacable clarity of the natural world Louise reveres, the novel proves that a quiet story can be as gripping as the busiest actionpacked narrative—and with more staying power. (Fiction. 8-12)
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MIGRANT
Trottier, Maxine Illustrator: Arsenault, Isabelle Groundwood (40 pp.) $18.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-88899-975-7 Trottier frames the outlook of a child in a family of migrant workers within a series of metaphors and similes. Anna sees herself as part of a flock that travels its seasonal round from Mexico to Canada like migratory geese, settles temporarily in old farmhouses like jackrabbits in other animals’ abandoned burrows and works in the fields like bees. She shares her bed with other girls like a litter of kittens and compares the voices of local residents speaking in unfamiliar languages to “a thousand crickets all singing a different song.” Arsenault’s mixed-media images of doll-like figures in overalls and long print dresses, hats and headscarves effectively capture both Anna’s sense of isolation and the close family ties that keep her immediate family and larger community together. Anna’s background is unusual—she belongs to a group of Low German–speaking Mennonite farmers who emigrated to Mexico in the early 20th century but kept their Canadian citizenship and still travel northward each summer—but her sense of herself as a rootless outsider is broadly applicable to other, perhaps all, migrant groups. The designer merits a rap on the knuckles for hiding part of the author’s explanatory afterword beneath a jacket flap, but on the whole is a moving, inventive and thoughtful look at a way of life many people share. (Picture book. 6-8)
MARCO POLO History’s Great Adventurer
Twist, Clint Templar/Candlewick (32 pp.) $19.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7636-5286-9
Routine content trumps flashy presentation in this follow-up to similarly packaged but more intellectually rewarding scrapbook-style albums introducing Charles Darwin (2009) and William Shakespeare (2010). This general account of Marco Polo’s travels—deliberately printed in a weak, unevenly inked typeface—opens with the seasoned traveler dictating his memoirs in a Genoese jail. From this, it retraces his itinerary to the court of Kublai Khan, summarizes a few of his commercially minded observations of China and India and describes his missions to what the author calls “present-day Burma” and northern Persia and his eventual return to Venice. Multiple illustrations crowd every spread with a not-always-differentiated mix of Renaissance and newly minted portraits or cityscapes, plus maps from various eras, illegible contemporary documents and showers of gemstones or other filler. Not only does the main text earn a low score for legibility, but many flaps that are meant to be read in a certain sequence are not logically placed and promised “extracts from The Travels of Marco Polo” do not materialize |
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“Through her assertive, appealing protagonist and a satisfying plot that sheds light on lesser-known aspects of pirate life, Vaughn introduces readers to an intriguing sport with an ancient pedigree.” from steel
beyond stray quoted phrases. Though certainly a step up from Susan L. Roth’s mannered Marco Polo: His Notebook (1990), next to Russell Freedman’s Adventures of Marco Polo (2006) this isn’t going to leave young readers with more than a superficial impression of Polo’s travelogue or historical significance. (Novelty nonfiction. 11-13)
UNLOCKED
Van Cleave, Ryan G. Walker (160 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8027-2186-0 School violence revisited. In Todd Strasser’s Give a Boy a Gun (2000), the school-violence story was raw and powerful. Ron Koertge’s verse treatment, The Brimstone Journals (2001), kept the story innovative and fresh. Over 10 years later, Van Cleave’s debut novel in verse is a didactic rehashing with uninspiring poetry. Andy has already been bullied for the last six years, but his situation grows worse when he starts his freshman year at the same high school where his father works as a janitor. Noticing other losers, like “equal / opportunity / angry” Sue and bookworm Nicholas, the teen turns his attention to Blake, who has undergone a metamorphosis since losing his soldier dad in the Iraqi war. As rumors about STDs, alcohol and sexual orientation travel the corridors, nothing garners as much attention as the rumor that Blake is hiding a gun in his locker. To win favor with his crush, Becky Ann, Andy steals his father’s keys to open Blake’s locker and retrieve the gun. While he doesn’t find anything suspicious in the locker, he discovers that Blake does have a firearm and final plans for his classmates. At first, Andy’s knowledge and newfound friendship with Blake gives him “rebel courage,” but soon he realizes that he has a difficult decision to make as Blake’s date for destruction approaches. A concluding teacher’s guide confirms the intended use of this tired-feeling novel. (Fiction. 12-16)
STEEL
Vaughn, Carrie HarperTeen (304 pp.) $16.99 | March 15, 2011 978-0-06-154791-1 In a thoroughly enjoyable take on the historical time-travel tale, Jill Archer, vacationing in the Bahamas with her family and depressed at having just missed qualifying for the Junior World Fencing Championships, uncovers the rusty tip of an old sword in the sand. With it, she’s transported back 300 years onto the pirate ship Diana, captained by Margery Cooper. Recognizing the sword, Cooper claims it for her own, knowing it will lead her and her mostly loyal crew to its owner and Cooper’s enemy, pirate Edmund Blane. Stuck in the past, Jill signs onto the crew, which operates as a loose democracy. Learning 334
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the ropes, setting sail and standing watch, Jill grows fond of her shipmates, but as Cooper closes in on Blane, Jill senses that he represents her only way home. As her attractive shipmate Henry teaches her to fight with a real sword, onboard and on land, Jill acquires a new, deeper understanding of her sport. The same bad move that in competition would only lose her points, in battle very likely could end her life. Through her assertive, appealing protagonist and a satisfying plot that sheds light on lesser-known aspects of pirate life, Vaughn introduces readers to an intriguing sport with an ancient pedigree. (author’s note, glossary of fencing terms) (Historical fantasy. 12 & up)
THE FERRET’S A FOOT
Venable, Colleen AF Illustrator: Yue, Stephanie Graphic Universe (48 pp.) PLB: $27.93 | $6.95 paperback original | March 1, 2011 PLB 978-0-7613-5223-5 paper 978-0-7613-5629-5 Series: Guinea PIG, Pet Shop Private Eye, Vol. 3 Sasspants, the mystery-loving guinea pig, returns to solve a new case with her faithful—perhaps too faithful—sidekick, Hamisher the hamster. Lovable-but-clueless pet-shop owner Mr. Venezi posts a help-wanted sign in the hopes he can find someone who will fix his mixed-up cage labels. The residents of Pets & Stuff are worried that too much help might hasten their being sold to different homes. Sasspants and Hamisher fix the signs themselves to forestall any new hire, but someone keeps defacing them. Prime suspects are the new, peppy ferrets, but Hamisher has learned from his mystery reading that the culprit is never the most obvious suspect. When Hamisher’s sleep-deprived sleepwalking (he’s trying not to be nocturnal) makes him suspect himself, Sasspants must recruit a new assistant and step up her furry investigations to find the vandal and clear Hamisher’s name. It’s another lighthearted caper, with much of the humor in the details; in addition to the evergreen mislabeled-cages gag, here Hamisher takes the drastic step of imprisoning himself in a hamster ball. Yue’s adorable, expressive cartoon creatures ably extend Venable’s humor. Aftermatter on ferrets and mystery-story vocabulary is instructive and funny. A winning graphic story all around. (Graphic mystery. 6-12)
SOPHIE’S LOVELY LOCKS
Villnave, Erica Pelton Illustrator: Villnave, Erica Pelton Marshall Cavendish (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7614-5820-3
Beautiful blonde Sophie loves her luscious locks, though the snarls and tangles prove time-consuming and painful. A bottle of glue and tape seem to be the perfect way to tame kirkusreviews.com
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her hair until an underwater dip damages her dreamy do. When sticky gum spreads throughout her scalp, Sophie quickly runs to the salon for a radical cut. The focus quickly shifts as she considers the options for her fallen strands, though there is no clear catalyst for her immediate decision. “Give it to a mouse for a warm home? Give it to a bird for a nest? / I know! I’ll donate it to a girl who needs a wig.” Sophie’s bubbly narration reveals no fear or remorse during the process. The stark white background provides a startling contrast to Sophie’s golden tresses, and the receiver of Sophie’s donation bears a striking resemblance to the generous young giver. The occasional use of colorful cursive type pops within the vivid watercolor spreads. The child’s cherished relationship with her beloved hair is realistically portrayed, though it’s jarring how random her decision to donate it feels. Sophie’s enthusiastic voice makes her a likable, if rather accidental, ambassador, and an applicable listing of charitable organizations concludes the message, but it’s too bad her act isn’t more intentional. (Picture book. 4-8)
bathtub. Accompanied by her canine sidekick, Mr. Harrison, the inquisitive child soars into outer space when her bath rockets out the window. The lively pair meets aliens who demonstrate striking similarities to their human counterparts. At times, the storyline’s action merely hums along—“Pelly and Mr. Harrison got into the bathtub and floated back down to earth”— but curious details add depth. The sun heats the alien version of s’mores (s’moons), while moon pies prove to be a delectable delicacy. There are no unexpected bumps along the journey home, as Pelly returns to reality just in time to hear her mother’s call. Both perspective and Pelly’s stature vary whimsically against the vast space skies. Solid bursts of colors add drama, and the repeated use of compact typed captions (“moon... moon... moon....”) make for playful use of environmental print. A graphpaper background peeks through thinly applied paint, adding a sense of scientific discovery to the adventure. The concluding page hints at the possibility of a remarkable reunion. All in all, a light, imaginative romp. (Picture book. 4-7)
THE QUEEN OF FRANCE
YOU’RE FINALLY HERE!
Wadham, Tim Illustrator: Denton, Kady MacDonald Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4102-3 Rose awakens one morning in a majestic mood. She selects items from her jewelry box and make-believe basket before promenading into the garden and announcing to her mother, “Hello, I am the Queen of France.” Rose’s commitment to the role is so complete that she continues, “Have you seen Rose?” Her mother and father are happy to play along, always gently emphasizing how much they love Rose as Rose. Soon this little girl is not content to be the Queen of France, she must also be Rose. So, she changes out of her costume, flounces into the kitchen and asks her mother the whereabouts of the Queen of France. Rose moves in and out of her role (and costume) before ultimately deciding that she’d really rather just be Rose, since her mother and father would miss her so much. But fancy can’t be subdued so easily, and after dinner Rose’s creativity stirs again. Illustrated in creamy, pinkhued watercolors that lend a glow to Rose’s cheery home, this sweet tale demonstrates that, with the right attitude and outfit, imagination reigns supreme. (Picture book. 2-6)
PELLY AND MR. HARRISON VISIT THE MOON
Ward, Lindsay Illustrator: Ward, Lindsay Kane/Miller (36 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-935279-77-8
Watt, Mélanie Illustrator: Watt, Mélanie Disney Hyperion (40 pp.) $15.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4231-3486-2
“You’re finally here!” Bunny shouts; his excitement knows no bounds until he thinks to demand, “But where were you?” Testily, he lets readers know how long he’s been waiting and how totally bored he got (the bore-o-meter reads, “Bored up to my ears!!!”). Concerned they might be getting off on the wrong foot, he moves back to celebration! Until he asks, “But seriously, where were you?” and he lectures readers on unfairness…and lets them know how annoying it is to have to wait…and just how rude they’ve been. He’s willing to forgive and forget—if readers are willing to sign a contract stating they’ll stay “forever and ever.” Just as he starts to celebrate the signing of the contract, his cell phone rings. It’s a call he has to take; “hold that thought.... No, no, I’m not busy at all....” Watt introduces another saucy critter to the fourth-wall–breaking menagerie that includes her own Chester the cat and Mo Willems’ Pigeon and adds a pointed lecture on cell-phone etiquette to the book-about-a-book conceit. The computer-generated bunny is in-your-face, manga adorable, but as the page compositions largely consist of Bunny alternately glaring and grinning at readers against a wood-grained background and speech balloons, a certain tedium develops before the twist at the end. A good-but-not-great entry in the meta– picture-book genre. (Picture book. 3-6)
The going-to-bed routine morphs into a fantastic adventure when Pelly notices an unusual fixture attached to her family’s |
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RIVAL
mishears and misinterprets the Hebrew word for repentance, “t’shuvah” and turns it into “shoebox,” causing all sorts of confusion. Intended as the first in a series; more adventures of YaYa and YoYo will be most welcome. (Fiction. 8-12)
Wealer, Sarah Bennett HarperTeen (336 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-06-182762-4 “The human voice, it turns out, just isn’t that strong. Human hatred, on the other hand, is,” begins loner Kathryn at the start of her senior year in small-town Minnesota. This year proves to be her most challenging yet, as she faces not only the upcoming Blackmore Young Artists’ Festival, one of the most prestigious singing competitions in the nation, with winners often advancing to Juilliard, but constant sneers and backbiting from her Chamber Choir rival and former best friend, A-lister Brooke. Just how these two teen singers became such bitter enemies is told through Kathryn and Brooke’s alternating viewpoints. The tension and mystery escalate as the author also alternates between junior year, when Brooke’s groupies throw a sorority-like slumber party to recruit new followers, inviting Kathryn in the process, and the burning hatred and stress of senior year, allowing readers to discover each girl’s secrets, betrayal, sacrifices and reasons for wanting to win the Blackmore. Musical terms and their definitions cleverly open and set the mood for each section. From spreading gossip and stealing boyfriends to bitch slaps and malicious pranks, this quick-paced and solid debut novel has all the drama of real high school. Think Glee, only with chamber music. (Fiction. YA)
SLIDING INTO THE NEW YEAR
Weinstein, Dori Yaldah (132 pp.) $9.95 paperback original March 1, 2011 | 978-1-59287-201-5 Series: YaYa & YoYo
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An absolutely engaging, Europeanflavored look at the relationship between a little boy and his older sister. A small boy is quite peeved when his sister acts the giraffe, strutting around, ignoring him, not answering when he shouts, “DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?” “When my sister is a giraffe, then I’m a smelly skunk” he says snarkily. The pictures tell more of the story: A giraffe with his sister’s face strides by as a little boy in a skunk costume farts merrily. But sometimes he and his sister are bears, romping all over the house, or birds, flying in the sky. (Mom pops out of the chimney with a sign saying, “Lunch is ready!”) But one day while playing Catch-the-Bunny, they are interrupted by Penny, who asks his sister to go swimming. Off she goes, which makes little brother brood all afternoon—and steal her toothbrush. Then she becomes a roaring leopard, and she chases him until he gets it back. The family dog, teddy bear and a couple of mice appear in most scenes, their comical expressions commenting on the action, and plenty of other engaging details abound. With so much to look at, this sly and oh-so-truthful snapshot of sibling relations will see plenty of repeated examination. (Picture book. 4-8)
DINO-BASKETBALL
YaYa and YoYo are twins whose nicknames are based on their Hebrew names. They use their English names, Ellie and Joel, respectively, in school, and they have lots of friends, both Jewish and non-Jewish. The twins have decidedly different personalities. YoYo is a jokester who loves science and is not very adventuresome. YaYa is messy, forgetful, risk-taking and a daydreamer, and they’re both confused by older brother Jeremy’s pre-teen moods. When YaYa’s best friend invites her to Splash World, she is faced with a dilemma, because the outing is to take place on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. She negotiates with great hope, but her parents, of course, say no. Although she is disappointed, she really does love the holiday and the traditions of her extended family. Weinstein employs YaYa’s voice as the very believable and delightful narrator and carefully avoids didacticism as she introduces readers to some of the rituals and traditions of Judaism as they are practiced in a warm, loving family. She incorporates humor too, as YaYa 336
MY WILD SISTER AND ME
Wewer, Iris Illustrator: Wewer, Iris NorthSouth (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7358-4003-4
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Wheeler, Lisa Illustrator: Gott, Barry Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7613-6393-4
The team that brought us Dino-Baseball, -Soccer and -Hockey (2010, 2009, 2007) this time delivers nothing but net. Once again divided by food preference, the Grassclippers take on the Meat, pitting some of the better-known dinosaurs against each other in a high-stakes game for the championship trophy. Wheeler’s staccato rhyming verse mimics both the playby-play announcement and the action of a basketball game, making readers feel a part of the excitement. “Allo answers off the dribble. / Diplo takes it up the middle— / —T. rex charges from behind. / Steals the ball. It’s Meaty time!” (Dino and team names are in bold and color-coded: red for carnivores, green for herbivores.) The off-court goings-on are just as accurately portrayed— cheerleaders, agitated coaches, famous spectators and some typical half-time events. Gott’s vividly colored illustrations are filled kirkusreviews.com
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“As if a road trip without any money isn’t exciting enough, escape from demented villains ups the ante in this survival tale with international-spy overtones.” from the secret of rover
with energy—almost like sitting courtside. And just as in real life, observers may lose track of who’s who in the melee, especially if they are not up on their species. Gott does a very good job of matching his artwork to the text, making it relatively easy for those unfamiliar with basketball to guess what “free throw,” “dunk” and “taking it to the hole” might mean. Still, this is not a basketball primer. Likely to be a slam dunk with both basketball and dinosaur fans...and football enthusiasts can look forward to the teams’ next match. (Picture book. 5-9)
SPINSTER GOOSE Twisted Rhymes for Naughty Children
Wheeler, Lisa Illustrator: Blackall, Sophie Atheneum (48 pp.) $16.99 | March 8, 2011 978-1-4169-2541-5
Delectably satiric nursery rhymes play with naughtiness and punishment. Mother Goose sends disobedient children (some human, some half-animal) to her sister Spinster Goose’s reform school, where “The pinchers get pinched, / and the pokers get poked. / The biters get bit, / and the smokers get smoked.” Crimes range from eating chalk to stealing sweets and cheating. Some consequences arise naturally (gum-chewer’s gum explodes on her face), while others come at Spinster’s strict hand: Baa Baa Black Sheep swears, so Spinster “hires shearers from the north, / hygenists [sic] from the south. / They promptly shear his BLEATING wool, / then wash his BLEATING mouth!” Real violence remains mostly at rumor level as threats—an electric chair and stretching rack are shown but not used. Lard-boiled beans prove that “Life is Gruel”; deliberately filthy Polly Flinders refuses to shower because “this punk is into Grunge.” Badness was never more enjoyable than Wheeler’s wicked rewrites: “Friday’s child stole seventeen lunches. / Saturday’s child threw seventeen punches. / But the child who got a Sunday detention / did something too naughty for me to mention.” Blackall’s watercolor-and-ink illustrations are fascinatingly delicate in line and color as they convey all the funny, delicious ghastliness of necks bending in woe, cheeks paling in nausea and this whole mob of unbiddable, hybrid Struwwelpeter/Gorey kids. (Picture book/poetry. 8 & up)
ODD GIRL IN
Whittemore, Jo Simon & Schuster (240 pp.) $6.99 paperback original March 22, 2011 978-1-4424-1284-2 Spunky 12-year-old Alex doesn’t really want friends or a social life in this quirky middle-school comedy. She hates girly giggling parties and doesn’t see any |
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other girls in her middle school that she’d want to have as a friend, so she just concentrates on following in the footsteps of her prankster older twin brothers. After one prank too many, however, her father enrolls Alex and her brothers in a program meant to mold successful children called “Champs!” A dreaded private school looms as punishment if all three children don’t pass the course. Alex finds her first challenge in Emily, an especially annoying classmate who boasts that her stepmother is the program’s egomaniacal coach and that she will be assisting in the lessons. Alex also must cope with Chloe, a hyper-competitive girl determined to win the final prize, but only after Alex becomes the go-between when both Chloe and Emily develop crushes on another Champs! student, super-nice, cute Trevor. Subplots thicken when Alex learns that Emily actually might become a good friend, and the Champs! program indeed does bring out her leadership qualities. Alex’s absent mother provides an element of drama in this otherwise witty, laugh-outloud romp. Whittemore handles not only the comedy but deftly portrays Alex’s and her brothers’ advancement into a more mature state of mind. It should keep middle-schoolers laughing from start to finish. Funny and perky. (Fiction. 8-12)
THE SECRET OF ROVER
Wildavsky, Rachel Amulet/Abrams (368 pp.) $16.95 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8109-9710-3
As if a road trip without any money isn’t exciting enough, escape from demented villains ups the ante in this survival tale with international-spy overtones. Katie and David, 12-year-old twins, find themselves in plush circumstances after their parents sell to the government the top-secret gadget they’d spent years developing in abject poverty. The prologue focuses on an orphaned child taken by soldiers in the nonexistent country of Katkajan, and when Katie and David’s parents take off to that country to adopt a baby, the two strands meet. A new nanny from Katkajan appears just as the parents are leaving, and with her comes trouble. When Katie and David discover they have been essentially kidnapped and their parents are unreachable, they decide to try to escape on a search for their only relative, a long-lost hermit uncle living near the Canadian border. Their journey north from Washington, D.C., with evil Katkajanians giving chase, provides suspense and a chance for them to display their ingenuity. Knowing which adults to trust and when is difficult, and eventually, the twins must solve their own problems, despite some powerful assistance. Fantasy though this clearly is, it reads (more or less) as though taking place in our recognizable world—sort of a 24 for middle-grade readers. Fans of spy stories and political intrigue will find plenty to appreciate here, but those few who demand logic and reality will be less appreciative. (Thriller. 10-14)
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“The overall effect is soothing, affectionate, precious and cozy—practically guaranteed to lull little ones to sleep.” from mama, why?
MAMA, WHY?
JUST FINE THE WAY THEY ARE
Wilson, Karma Illustrator: Mendez, Simon McElderry (40 pp.) $16.99 | March 22, 2011 978-1-4169-4205-4
Wooldridge, Connie Nordhielm Illustrator: Walz, Richard Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $17.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-59078-710-6
A lullaby featuring a polar bear mother and cub joins the legions of other tales of young ones asking their mothers the familiar—why? “When the moon sails high in the Artic sky, / Polar cub asks, ‘Mama, why?’ / Mama answers, ‘Moon floats up there / to say good night to polar bears. / He glides above to shine sweet dreams / and sends them down on silver beams.’” Mama adds, “When the moon sends dreams of princes and queens, / he turns wondrous stories into dreams.” While the sleepy polar cub continues to ask “why” in response to each of his mother’s lyrical explanations, the mixedmedia illustrations imbue a dreamy quality to the spare text. Amid the misty aura, the bears are almost photographically realistic, especially their fur texture. Mendez sprinkles stars liberally about his spreads, their luster adding to the silvery sheen of the moon against the dark Arctic night, as if channeling Thomas Kinkade. As Mama’s explanations grow ever more fanciful, he incorporates fanciful imagery from the standard (pirate ships, royal coaches) to refreshingly original (bears and a trio of seals put together in the night sky). The overall effect is soothing, affectionate, precious and cozy—practically guaranteed to lull little ones to sleep. (Picture book. 3-5)
YOU’RE MEAN, LILY JEAN!
Wishinsky, Frieda Illustrator: Denton, Kady MacDonald Whitman (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8075-9476-6
DREAM BIG LITTLE PIG!
Small in stature but armed with a monstrous attitude, Lily Jean rides into the neighborhood atop an armchair her moving men are unloading. “I can skate backwards and stand on my head,” she boasts to Carly and her older sister, Sandy. Lily Jean invites herself to join in their games, but her bossiness dictates the agenda. She pressures Carly into acting as a baby and a cow so she can delight in playing house and cowgirls with Sandy. While resting as the royal pooch, however, clever Carly turns the tide on the haughty diva. The neatly realized conclusion resolves any hint of conflict. Acrylic lines sketch Lily Jean’s demanding personality. Oil crayon and gouache touches enhance the pencil-and-watercolor spreads; calming colors suit the youngsters’ imaginative romps. The child-centered dialogue reflects Carly’s realistic vulnerability as well as Sandy’s ambivalence as she’s both drawn to the dynamic newcomer and troubled by her treatment of Carly. Though Sandy quietly supports her little sister’s inclusion, refreshingly, it’s Carly’s assertiveness that stops the bullying behavior. A fresh twist on the classic motif of the odd man, or girl, out. (Picture book. 4-7) 338
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Wooldridge’s story of America’s land-transportation networks—its roadways and railways—is folksy but panoramic. The informal, affable tone, something like a movie voice-over, works well here, conveying a sweeping amount of material—over a lot of ground and 200 years—as it chugs merrily along, hitting the high points, while Walz provides heroic imagery with a Thomas Hart Benton tang. The narrative proceeds chronologically, with paths and post roads being replaced by the National Road, which is trumped by the railroads, which in turn is transcended by “wheelmen” (bicyclists) and, more importantly, by the automobile. Intriguing players and institutions are introduced—Peter Cooper, Lucius Stockton, Henry Ford, Tom Thumb, the B&O Railroad and the Good Intent Stagecoach line—though because of the survey nature of the book, they are more food for thought than fleshed out (a good timeline and bibliography at the end of the book helps point readers toward further information). Fittingly, the story has got real rhythm to it, helped along by the refrain— “Things were just fine the way they were,” thought those who benefited from a soon-to-be-diminished carrier—but most of all by capturing the surging, ever-evolving nature of the country’s transportation network. As the book closes, it is clear that the system continues to evolve—unpredictably, perhaps, but inexorably. (Informational picture book. 8-12)
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Yamaguchi, Kristi Illustrator: Bowers, Tim Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (32 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4022-5275-4 For the youngest of listeners, the themes found in The Little Engine that Could continue to inspire. Former U.S. Olympic figure-skater Yamaguchi has penned a new version, complete with American Idol flash and glamour. Poppy the little pig, fully done up in all tutus, bare shoulders and high heels, reaches for stardom in talent-search competitions for ballet, singing and even modeling. The illustrations capture the disdain of the judges and competitors, especially the tall and slinky feline model’s. The “people in charge” (all depicted as animals in Bowers’ humorous, workmanlike illustrations) keep telling Poppy, “This is not for you.” With each stumble, her glittering smile turns south. But every star needs adoring fans, who turn out in spades for this famedriven pig. The encouragement of mother, grandparents and friend is not forgotten as Poppy ends up on an ice-skating rink in (groan-inducing) New Pork City. The white space on many kirkusreviews.com
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of the pages may foretell the ice rink to come, with thought bubbles transforming into successful swirls on ice. Wearing sensible clothing and with the support of a friend, Poppy’s determination takes hold, and that makes all the difference. A sincere thank you from Yamaguchi to her family and fans, it’s lacking in both captivating plotting and illustration. As celebrity books go, though, it’s a cut above many, and the prose styling is refreshingly restrained. (Picture book. 4-8)
WARP SPEED
Yee, Lisa Levine/Scholastic (320 pp.) $16.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-545-12276-4 Seventh-grader Marley Sandelsky— former friend of Stanford Wong (Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, 2005, etc.)—is a devoted Star Trek fan; he knows the series so well that he thinks metaphorically about his life in terms of characters and plots from Star Trek. He even speaks Klingon when tongue-tied around new classmate Emily Ebers is (So Totally Emily Ebers, 2007, etc.). Marley sees himself as invisible, alone and, worse, an outsider, thrown together with a pack of other misfits, flung to the outer circles of what passes for a social life at his large middle school. He’s got parents who love him—his blind mother is, as Marley puts it, “probably more capable than 99% of the population,” and his reclusive father runs the repertory film theatre in town. But he has a big problem: He’s being bullied from several directions. A trio of boys Marley thinks of as “the Gorn” routinely assaults him, and Digger, the thuggish son of a successful real-estate developer, daily shakes him down for his homework. Still, Marley’s fleet feet, nimble brain and Kirk-like courage help him to extricate himself in the end—with the help of friends he didn’t know he could count on. Yee’s combination of humor and sympathy works a charm here, giving Marley a life of his own and a chance at success in this solid addition to her prismatic look at middle school. (Fiction. 9-12)
TEN BIRDS
Young, Cybèle Illustrator: Young, Cybèle Kids Can (32 pp.) $18.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-55453-568-2 Ten small birds have a serious problem. They need to get across a river and have only a deserted lot full of discarded odds and ends—and their own ingenuity— to help them. After “the one they called ‘Brilliant’ ” creates some stilts and makes his way to the other side, the other birds follow, with each new effort—a water bicycle, Leonardo-esque wings, a spool-driven parachute, a boat crafted from an old fan—as imaginatively detailed and surprising as the last. The straightforward |
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text provides structure and clarity, while the striking and intricate pen-and-ink illustrations perfectly capture the stillness of a night full of wintry snow, show the birds’ innovative and slightly mystical solutions to the problem at hand and seamlessly depict the decreasing numbers that represent the birds who have yet to cross. Most of the birds have apt names: Shows Great Promise, Extraordinary, Outstanding—even Highly Satisfactory comes up with an original idea. In the end, only Needs Improvement is left. But this last bird may not need improvement after all; he sees something of a practical nature the others have missed. Incorporating elements of a fable with a style vaguely reminiscent of David Macaulay or Arthur Geisert, this quietly dazzling selection is a subtle celebration of individuality and creativity. Appealing, unique and not to be missed. (Picture book. 5-10)
k i r k u s r o u n d-u p continuing series T IS FOR TAJ MAHAL: An Indian Alphabet Discover the World
GORILLAS
Gibbons, Gail Illus. by Gail Gibbons Holiday House (32 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8234-2236-4 (Informational picture book. 4-8)
Bajaj, Varsha Illus. by Robert Crawford Sleeping Bear Press (48 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-58536-504-3 (Nonfiction. 6-10)
AFTERLIFE Evernight #4
THE CASE OF THE LIBRARY MONSTER The Buddy Files #5
Gray, Claudia HarperTeen (368 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-06-128442-7 (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)
Butler, Dori Hillstead Illus. by Jeremy Tugeau and Dan Crisp Whitman (128 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8075-0914-2 (Mystery. 6-8)
HUMAN BODY: A Book with Guts!
Green, Dan Kingfisher (128 pp.) $14.99 | paper $8.99 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-7534-6628-5 Paper: 978-0-7534-6501-1 (Nonfiction. 10 & up)
COOL! WHOA! AH AND OH! What Is an Interjection? Words Are CATegorical Cleary, Brian P. Illus. by Brian Gable Millbrook (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-58013-594-8 (Early reader. 7-11) |
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WITCH’S BREW A Sam & Friends Mystery #4
pubcamp at sxsw
I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF! Little Princess
Labatt, Mary Illus. by Jo Rioux Kids Can (96 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-55453-472-2 (Graphic mystery. 7-10)
Ross, Tony Illus. by Tony Ross Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-7613-7412-1 (Picture book 4-9)
STINK: And the Ultimate Thumb-Wrestling Smackdown
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Manga Shakespeare Shakespeare, William Illus. Faye Young Amulet/Abrams (208 pp.) $10.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8109-9717-2 (Graphic classic 12 & up)
McDonald, Megan Illus. by Peter Reynolds Candlewick (144 pp.) $12.99 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-7636-4346-1 (Fiction. 5-8)
Kirkus Reviews
ALIEN ENVOY Alien Agent, #6
ELMER AND THE RAINBOW
O’Reilly Media Booktour.com
Service, Pamela F. Illus. by Mike Gorman Darby Creek (176 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-7613-5364-5 (Science fiction. 9-12)
McKee, David Illus. David McKee Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-7613-7410-7 (Picture book 4-9)
Publishing Perspectives ToolBox Studios
TWELFTH NIGHT Manga Shakespeare
FREDDIE RAMOS ZOOMS TO THE RESCUE Zapato Power #3
Shakespeare, William Illus. by Nana Li Amulet/Abrams (208 pp.) $10.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8109-9718-9 (Graphic classic 12 & up)
Jules, Jacqueline Illus. by Miguel Beníto Whitman (88 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8075-9482-7 (Fiction 6-8)
The next pages in publishing are being written right now, and with them great changes are afoot. PubCamp@SxSW happens on Friday, March 11 in Austin, Texas—a time for listening, talking and doing - examining the role of the writers and the reader, as well as technology as a delivery mechanism for content. We’re inviting authors, typographers, cover designers, printers, technologists, retailers, literary agents, publishers and geeks to come along and consider if and how technology can transform and perhaps improve on what Johannes Gutenberg created more than 600 years ago. PubCamp is a free event, thanks to the generous support of our sponsors:
Writers’ League of Texas Texas Book Festival Book Industry Study Group
A PLACE FOR FISH A Place for…
Stewart, Melissa Illus. by Higgins Bond Peachtree (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-56145-562-1 (Nonfiction 6-10)
This Issue’s Contributors # Timothy Capehart • Julie Cummins • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis • Omar Gallaga • Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Julie Hubble • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Betsy Judkins • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • April Mazza • John Edward Peters • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Erika Rohrbach • Meg Smith • Robin Smith • Rita Soltan • Bette Wendell-Branco • Melissa Yurechko
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discoveries Publishing has never been as dynamic as it is right now, with one of the most exciting areas in self-publishing. With the self-published numbers reportedly approaching a million books per year—and growing—it’s increasingly becoming a challenge for authors to stand out from the rest. At Kirkus Discoveries, authors have a partner who will provide an honest, unbiased review of their work from our network of specialized, professional reviewers. But today, the review is just the beginning. At Kirkus Discoveries, we will offer a relaunched website, social media properties, newsletters and expanding content—all crucial tools poised to get the word out about your book like no one else. In these pages, you’ll see the best books from the Discoveries program, as well as an interview with e-book visionary and Smashwords founder Mark Coker and a discussion with librarians about how they judge the |
value of independently published titles. Plus, as we prepare for the O’Reilly Tools of Change Conference, we look at the many writing-group options available for writers online. As technology advances to allow authors to tell stories in wholly different ways, we’ll be there. To learn more about Kirkus Discoveries and start promoting your title, please visit us online at kirkusreviews. com/discoveries.
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HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH AN ATOMIC BOMB
LETTERS TO JUD: Stories of Another Life
Kuran, Peter VCE, Inc. Enhanced e-book: $9.99 January 6, 2011
An in-depth look at an esoteric facet of a popular subject, namely the technological innovations necessary to photograph nuclear weapons tests. Written and researched by the Academy-Award-winning filmmaker behind Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie, this multimedia counterpart to the title’s existing print versions comes with sky-high expectations. In a design that mimics the precision of a nuclear scientist’s statistical chart, Kuran’s work chronicles not so much the development of atomic weapons, but the parallel development of the classified projects tasked with photographing the weapons on display. Kuran gives just enough detail to intrigue photographic laymen but isn’t afraid to describe some of the more eye-glazing technical aspects that make photographing an atomic detonation a singular event. For anyone doubting the functionality of e-books, this will make a believer of at least the nonfiction reader. Complete with gorgeous stills of megaton mushroom clouds, the electronic format also allows Kuran to incorporate film footage of gargantuan water columns rising from the South Pacific and another explosion’s pressure wave blowing apart a home miles from the blast. It’s a guilty pleasure, and as a historical or technological narrative or ethical treatise, it is left a bit wanting. But this is a picture book for the history buff of the 21st century. Full of Atomic-Age atmosphere, the photographs of the special cameras used in these endeavors reveal them to be as complex as we imagine the bombs must have been. The many pictures of skinny, diligent, high-waisted, goggled men in their baggy uniforms enjoying the lightshow give off an uncomfortable radiance that is both supreme camp and awesome dread. Whether a reader loves weaponry, photography or midcentury American kitsch, this is a true cultist’s delight, and Kuran’s love affair with the subject is on display. Readers will find the ability to control the speed and even time direction of the unique footage terribly addicting. It’s a new age for nonfiction, and this project brightly shows the way.
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Alderman, Don iUniverse (204 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paperback | $6.00 e-book | January 20, 2010 ISBN: 978-1440181375 paper: 978-1440181351 e-book: 978-1440181368 A World War II-era small town sparkles to life in this luminous memoir. Half a century after the death of his father Jud, manager of the railroad depot in the village of Republic, Mo., the author revisits his boyhood world in these epistolary recollections. In part, they are a subtle appreciation of the virtues that a son doesn’t fully see in his father until he grows older himself—of Jud’s hard work and skillfulness, his shrewd wisdom and his steady love for his family. But through them Alderman also sketches an enchanting portrait of the close-knit town and the lonesome farmsteads of the Missouri Ozarks surrounding it, as seen through the eyes of a boy growing to manhood. There are youthful pranks and raucous baptisms that nearly drown their beneficiaries. There are beguiling neighborhood characters: a homeless man who grows succulent vegetables, a local “witch” who turns stones into cupcakes for kids, and a glamorous eighth-grader who smokes, kills snakes and steals honey from wild hives. There are darker threads, including a man who walks into town one day waving a gun and threatening to shoot someone. There’s the dread of bad news from the front and the excitement of the war mobilization as transports carrying troops and tanks come bustling through. (The author’s re-creations of the culture and technology of trains—the sleek aerodynamic locomotives, the ritual of handing up messages for the crew on radio-less expresses to snatch as they hurtle past—are an engrossing reminder of the vanished romance of railroading.) Alderman’s lyrical prose infuses these vignettes with evocative details—“I couldn’t think of anything that smelled better than the fragrance of a cigarette freshly lit by a kitchen match in the cab of a workman’s truck”—and a quiet humor. When he returns to finds Jud’s depot demolished, we’re grateful that his vivid memories endure. A funny, moving, finely wrought remembrance of a lost Middle America.
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di sc ov e r ie s
To Shelf or Not to Shelf B Y M EG A N
HONI G
They call. They e-mail. They show up, books in hand, ready to make a sale. As self-publishing becomes cheaper, easier and more respectable, new authors look to the library not only as a place to borrow books but also as a potential buyer. “I see more and more every day,” says Andrea Williams, collections manager at Virginia’s JeffersonMadison Regional Library, who currently fields 200-300 requests for new materials each month, an increasing number of which are for self-published materials. “It’s almost constant.” The eager authors who bring their books to Williams seem to imagine that she will read their books herself. But collection development librarians, who buy thousands of books, movies, music CDs, magazines and electronic materials each year, rarely evaluate materials by hand. Instead, they rely on review journals such as Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist and Kirkus that employ professional
reviewers to evaluate books before their release. But the number of selfpublished books with reviews versus the overall number of self-published books is miniscule, which leaves libraries in a bind. Without professional reviews, and without time to examine every book they encounter, how can librarians decide which of the growing number of self-published books belong on their shelves? “A lot of times, I look at the things around a book,” says Brenna Shanks, teen materials selector for Washington State’s King County Library System, referring to online book reviews, other works by the author and Internet buzz. Shanks is not alone; librarians are increasingly turning to nontraditional review sources to find out about everything from graphic novels to the underground genre of street literature. Eva Volin, who buys children’s materials at California’s Alameda Free Library, looks at book-reviewing blogs and authors’ Twitter feeds to learn more about the self-published materials that come across her desk. Shanks pays attention to the local book scene as well as fan sites for graphic novels and anime. Public demand also influences libraries’ selections. Lisa Dennis, one of three collection development librarians at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, rarely purchases self-published books, but her department made an exception for Pittsburgh sportswriter John Steigerwald’s Just Watch the Game after more than 100 library patrons requested the title. Librarians often prioritize selfpublished material by local authors who generate demand by giving readings in the area or by covering topics of particular interest to the community, such as local history. Some librarians even seek out selfpublished books that fill niches. Volin, a graphic-ovel enthusiast, goes to comic conventions with an eye toward finding high-quality graphic novels, many of which are self-published. Her most recent find was a book of photographs of cosplayers—anime and manga fans dressed as their favorite characters— a topic she knew would appeal to the numerous teen and adult anime fans at her library. |
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Not every library system takes such a progressive approach, however. “I know I’m behind the times,” says Lisa Dennis wistfully. But after seeing too many “abysmal” self-published books, she threw up her hands. Now, she refers self-published authors to the Carnegie Library’s collection development policy, which lists “availability of professional reviews” among its main criteria. Still, Dennis admits that the publishing landscape is evolving and suspects she will find herself using a greater variety of tools, such as bookreview blogs, in the future. What the future holds for library collections is a subject of much debate. Shanks, for one, is keeping her eye on print-on-demand and e-book technology that she believes will drastically shift the way all books are made available. The only sure thing is that the rules of publishing are changing. As demand for self-published materials grows, libraries must either continue to adapt or risk obsolescence. Megan Honig is a librarian and youth advocate and the author of Urban Grit: A Guide to Street Lit. She blogs about street lit, teen services, social justice and more at meganhonig.com/libraries.
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TEC H N O L O G Y
The Worldwide Web of Writing B Y RYA N
L EA HEY
So you’ve written something—fiction, nonfiction, anything in between. Now what? Time was, you might pass it along to a friend, hand it in during class or print out a few copies for your workshop; a modest amount of feedback for a modest interaction. Now, with this whole Internet thing, think of your workshop as exponentially bigger. There are hundreds of online writing communities eager to include you, though finding the right one can be a daunting, but ultimately rewarding, task—it can help improve your writing, assist you with your publishing ambitions and, ideally, make the writing process that much more enjoyable. Consider a few of your options:
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FIGMENT
(authorsden.com): This immense site boasts more than 2 million manuscript reviews and an impressive genre assortment. The specialized categories list allows members to write for, and find, their niche among the glut of material. In promising to transform the way writers connect with readers, the site’s philosophy references a new publishing revolution, which could just as well be the online writing community credo: “AuthorsDen is focused on re-creating the historical face-to-face author and reader relationship where authors create, share, interact with each other and sell direct to their readers, but this time rather than taking place in a town square or temple it takes place online and throughout the world.”
(figment.com): To get an idea of this fledgling site’s appeal, know that its inspiration was a series of novel-length stories written and shared via cell-phone texts. As such, Figment—co-founded by New Yorker contributor Dana Goodyear and former managing editor Jacob Lewis— attracts a younger generation of authors who may or may not be writing their masterpieces with just their thumbs. The site offers comments and review functions for submitted stories in a decidedly encouraging atmosphere for developing talents.
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(critiquecircle.com): A no-frills, reviewbased site that requires members to critique other stories in order to submit their own. The submission structure runs on a credit system that rewards interaction—submitting a story “costs” three credits, which a member earns with each insightful critique he posts. Instead of a free-for-all submission forum, submissions enter a single queue in the order in which they are submitted, enhancing the site’s community vibe. “Newbie” members can first post in a separate queue, while paying subscribers can create and maintain their own queues that circumvent the standard waiting period. Alas, no poetry.
WRITING.COM
(writing.com): A sprawling site focused on building and sharing an online portfolio. Many of the editing and interactive features, such as instant messaging and limited portfolio space, are free, while hosting and a “yourname@writing. com” e-mail address—perhaps a valuable addition to your business card—are available for a fee. Members may submit items and request critiques of their work on “The Shameless Plug Page.” Sample preface: “Can someone tell me what’s wrong with this? Because according to [publication name], it sucks, or at least isn’t good enough for them.”
RED ROOM
(redroom.com): This writing-community-cum-social-networking-site offers user-generated podcasts, videos and, of course, blogs. The Facebook-ish display of writerly personas—some established, some getting there—presents a wide range of material to consume for avid readers and talent-seeking agents alike. Enter the community for free, or pay for a Premium Membership to display your own work. |
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CRITIQUE CIRCLE
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(authonomy.com): Innovative site run by HarperCollins that lets members submit manuscripts and rank their favorites of the thousands submitted. Each month, the top five manuscripts, as voted by the community, will be read and critiqued by HarperCollins editors, with some manuscripts even earning a publishing deal. And it’s free. HarperCollins also offers a similar site just for teen writers—InkPop (inkpop.com).
k i r ku s q & a w i t h m a r k c o k e r Mark Coker and his wife self-published their novel Boob Tube, a fictional behind-the-scenes look at the world of soap operas, when their top New York agent was unable to sell the manuscript to a publisher. Frustrated with the outdated practices of the publishing industry, Coker founded Smashwords, a platform for independent writers and publishers to convert their e-books into multiple formats and distribute them to major retailers including Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Komo and, soon, Amazon. Here Coker gives valuable insight on self-publishing at the dawn of the e-book age.
marketing at all, and the book sold well because if a book is great, if it resonates with those first readers who stumble across it, then it’ll spread virally. That’s the characteristic of a great book. It starts with one reader and then that reader tells all their friends to read that book.
A: I think it should be free. There should be no cost to participate in the platform, there should be no cost to convert your book into multiple formats and there should be no distribution cost. You should only have to pay the publishing platform when they sell your book, and a fair model is a commission. It’s risk-free. That’s the way we work at Smashwords. I think that makes sense for the independent author. It’s all about running your writing as a business, minimizing expense and trying to maximize your revenues. Unfortunately, a lot of independent authors over the years have been suckered by publishing services that charge them thousands of dollars for packages of nebulous value. The only investment that an author needs to make is the investment of their time. Q: What about editing and layout design? Is that worth the investment?
Q: What other social networks do you recommend besides Facebook and Twitter?
A: The biggest downside of publishing platforms such as Smashwords is that we make it too easy for people to publish. We will often see books published at Smashwords that aren’t ready for publication. The book has not been edited—it’s a first draft—and that’s just horrible. You’re doing your readers a disservice. I think the first dollars that an author invests in their book should be for editing and proofing. You don’t necessarily even need to pay someone to do that. This is where authors working together can help each other. The most important thing is that you let another set of eyes, preferably an independent set of eyes, see your book. But, if you have to pay, there are a lot of great, talented professionals. I would much rather see an author spend $2,000 to $3,000 on a good edit with a book doctor or editor than spend $2,000 to $3,000 on marketing. If you don’t give readers a book that respects their time, they’re going to reject it. When a reader rejects your book, they just ignore it and you fade into rapid obscurity. On the other hand, I’ve seen authors publish great books with practically no
A: I encourage authors to be active participants in the e-book message boards—MobileRead (mobileread. com) is a great community where authors and readers come together to talk about e-books, Amazon offers a forum (amazonsellercommunity.com/ forums/index.jspa) that is a great place for authors and readers to meet. Kindle Boards (kindleboards. com) is an independent operator of a message board that’s very popular. Barnes & Noble operates its own message board (bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/ t5/NOOK-Apps-and-NOOKbooks-Boards/ct-p/ eBooks), and Apple operates its own message board (discussions.apple.com/index.jspa). Those message boards are really important. And then there are other networks of just authors. I think it’s really important for authors to network among themselves and just share ideas, share resources, share secrets. We’re still in the very early days of the e-book revolution, and the rules are still being written by these independent authors who are taking the risks and experimenting.
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Mark Coker Free March 7, 2008 ASIN: B00197L3HW
Q: What marketing tips do you have for self-published authors? A: The best marketing isn’t done as a one-shot deal. Marketing should be done as a campaign over time. If you’re hiring a marketing agent, you have to pay for their time. So it’s really difficult for an author to earn a return on their investment if they’re going to be spending $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 to do an adequate marketing job. I advise authors to do as much of their marketing as they can on their own, to start their marketing before they’ve even finished their book, to take full advantage of social media. And that doesn’t mean just opening up a Twitter account and a Facebook account and attracting a lot of followers so you can spam them. That doesn’t work. But it involves becoming a valuable member of the social networks that you participate in so that your fellow members of that network feel invested in your personal success, and so when it is time for you to publish and market your book, it’s the members of your network who can help open up marketing opportunities for you and who will be out there helping to promote your book with you.
Q: What should writers look for in a publishing platform?
BOOB TUBE
Check out Coker’s baby at smashwords.com. kirkusreviews.com
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