The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies by Jane Werner (Random House, 1951/2008)

Lynn: My name is Lynn and I am addicted to books. It started out slowly - a picture book here, a fairy tale there but before I knew it I owned the entire collection of Sue Barton and every Oz book ever written. I hoped I would change. But the cravings grew stronger than ever. My family guessed. The clues were everywhere: my constant requests for bookshelves, the towering stacks of books hidden around the house, the fact that all the bookstore clerks knew me by name. But even I did not realize how deeply I was hooked until the day I sat at the coffee shop idly reading review magazines and then it happened. I saw an article talking about the reissue of The Giant Golden Book of Fairies and Elves. “OMG,” I shrieked, reverting to abbreviations in my excitement. I leaped to my feet, knocking over my butter rum latte and my chair. I HAD to have it! My old copy was battered from years of reading. "The Lost Merbaby," "Singeli’s Silver Slippers," the wonderful Garth Williams illustrations, "The Cannery Bear!" Every eye in the coffee shop was on me. This is a Calvinist town and we don’t shout about books here. It was then that I knew I needed help. Heed this cautionary tale! RUN to your nearest bookstore and order this fabulous book for everyone you know. Then locate the nearest 12-step program. I’ll be there, with this childhood treasure clutched to my heart.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cindy: I don't even know where to start to respond to that. Fortunately, we often take turns with bad moods and unbridled enthusiasm so we can help each other through the good and bad. Teasing aside, I can relate to Lynn's delight in Random House's reissue of favorite Golden Books. These books, purchased in the grocery store, and reread endlessly, imprinted on our DNA. My childhood favorite was Tommy Visits the Doctor with the delightful Richard Scarry illustrations of the boy and rabbit simultaneously visiting their doctors. True fans will have already read 2007's Golden Legacy by Leonard S. Marcus. But back to elves and fairies. This book is charming and Garth Williams' drawings add just the right touch. A personal favorite of mine is the poem, "The Second-Hand Shop," by Rowena Bennett that explains what happens to all the household items I lose that the Borrowers don't abscond with...a fairy is selling them!

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey (Scholastic, 1990)

Cindy: This post should have been up yesterday, but if I hadn't cleaned the kitchen instead we'd never have been able to get to the counters to stuff our own turkey this morning. Our plan was to each share a favorite Thanksgiving picture book, but Lynn was traveling over the river and through the woods to Lafayette, IN to bring her parents home for Thanksgiving, so I am flying solo this year. We'll plan ahead next year. Yeah, right.

'Twas the day before Thanksgiving
And all through the trees,
The fall leaves were spinning
Aloft in the breeze.

Eight school children take a field trip with their peace sign earring-wearing teacher to a turkey farm where Farmer Mack Nuggett calls his turkeys by name: "Now Ollie, now Stanley, now Larry and Moe, on Wally, on Beaver, on Shemp and Groucho!" The kids befriend the turkeys and come up with a plan to spare them from their Thanksgiving fate. Signature Pilkey humor, great comic illustrations that pay tribute to some famous paintings, and a message of peace. Great holiday fare. If you're not familiar with this 1990 Scholastic/Orchard publication, add it to next year's holiday traditions!

Now, football is also a part of many families' Thanksgiving weekend traditions, so I have another reading recommendation for those fans. It's The Sports Kid Blog written by my cousin, Jack, a 6th grader. Even if you are not a Miami Dolphin or football fanatic like he is, check out his great writing style and voice. We just recently discovered each other's blogs and I was very impressed with his and have added it to my reader feed. He asked how I read so many books. I said, "I don't clean my house, can't you tell?" He looked around and completely deadpan said, "Yes." Consider this a fitting coda to this post's opening statement!

Happy Thanksgiving from Bookends!

Rod Serling's Twilight Zone graphic novels adapted by Mark Kneece (Walker, 2008)

Cindy: I grew up watching Creature Feature and Twilight Zone...and checking out LPs from the public library so I could listen to Bill Cosby try to scare me to death with his "Chicken Heart" story. It's not cool enough that CBS and Hulu.com let us watch the many of the original Rod Serling Twilight Zone episodes, but now Walker & Company is publishing graphic novel adaptations of eight of the classic shows! The first two are out and The After Hours is definitely the creepier one. A young woman shops for a gift for her mother in a department store but when she tries to return the damaged item the floor she visited doesn't exist, and that isn't the only strange thing about the store. This one brings to mind the vintage Richard Peck YA novel, Secrets of the Shopping Mall. The art is great and reflects the mood--and the story is faithful to the original television script. The introduction, notes from the author, and credits for the television episode add to the package. I want this episode adapted next: Time Enough at Last: "A bookworm yearns for more time to read - then a nuclear holocaust leaves him alone in the world with lots of time, plenty to read and one ironic twist!" Yours from another dimension...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lynn: Start the theme music running in your head, open Walking Distance and settle in for a quintessential Twilight Zone experience. An over-stressed businessman has car trouble just a mile and a half from the hometown he hasn’t visited in twenty years. Nostalgic for a simpler time, he walks to town only to discover that he has walked back in time. Large, easy-to-read panels make this visually appealing and the introduction provides plenty of information for the newbie. I’m eager to hear what our teens think but I'm betting these will be popular.

President's Daughter Series by Ellen Emerson White

Cindy: Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin have both made this presidential election year very memorable, but Author Ellen Emerson White wrote about a woman in control of the White House back in 1984. The series, about Meg Powers, the daughter of the first female President of the United States, has been revised for currency and re-released with the newest book in the series, Long May She Reign. I had somehow missed these the first time around, but discovered them when I was assigned this fourth book to review for Booklist. While the story earns its title, "Loooooong..." with a slow moving plot, the intricate details about life in the White House and having Secret Service men escorting Meg to college are fascinating. The emotional recovery from the stress of having been held captive by terrorists in book three and coming to terms with her mother's choice to refuse to negotiate for her release are events that would require a slow healing process, so the narrative pace is warranted. I still haven't read the rest of the series, but maybe I should take one home to read while I watch the election results roll in...I hope you elect to read these, too.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lynn: Since the moment she read Long May She Reign, Cindy has been nagging me to start this series. I am hopelessly compulsive when it comes to reading books in order, so I ignored her and waited till this summer when the new editions came out and, darn, she was right again. I loved the first one and can hardly wait to read the rest. Yes, the political detail was fascinating but it was Meg's voice that really won me over. She sounded like a real teen to me: smart, sarcastic and a little self-absorbed, but very real. Meg's conflicted feelings toward her mother are so well portrayed that I found myself talking back to the book. Whatever your politics, this series is a winner.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cindy: Lynn, You know I am ALWAYS right. :)