The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, 2008)

Lynn: An assassin, the Man Jack, murders three members of a sleeping family as the true target, a little boy, climbs out of his crib and toddles up the hill to the graveyard eluding the killer. A ghostly couple shields the child and then decides to raise him, naming him Nobody Owens because he looks like nobody but himself. It takes a graveyard to raise this child and Bod is the adored pet of the spectral residents whose living years spanned the centuries. As Bod begins to push at the restrictions of childhood, he once again comes to the attention of the mysterious group who seek his death.

Gaiman’s storytelling abilities shine here as he riffs on Jungle Book, nursery rhymes, and vampire lore in a truly unique coming of age story. Humor lightens the somewhat melancholy tone of the book that perfectly matches the memorable characters - living and dead. The ghouls are totally awesome too! For audio book fans, the audio of this book is wonderful with Gaiman doing the narration.
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Cindy: I've been following the debate on the Adbooks listserv about whether this is a teen book or not. Bod is young, but the story starts out with the murder of his family and ultimately, the story leads up to Bod's preparation to set out on his own "to seek his fortune" and see the world without the aid of the ghouls who have raised him. The gorgeous writing and the successful construction of each chapter that can be read as a stand alone short story creates a novel that can be enjoyed by 4th grade through adult. After coming to that conclusion I visited Gaiman's website to see if there was something I could link to for fun, and found a blog entry of Gaiman's with his opinion about the audience for the book. It's always a pleasure to know that Neil has your back....

Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through the Gates and Beyond by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan (Roaring Brook, 2008)

Cindy: I made my first trek through Central Park just six months prior to the Gates installation and longed to return to see the saffron banners waving against the black trees and white snow. What a treat that must have been for the local folks to see their park transformed for a few short weeks. For those of us who missed it in person, this fabulous book by art biographers Greenberg and Jordan will more than do. The husband and wife team of Christo and Jeanne-Claude (born on the same day and year in separate countries) are the epitome of perseverance, working decades to get the necessary permission for their imaginative and original public art created on a truly grand scale. The book design is perfect, many photographs letting the art speak for itself as its creators do, and a fold-out spread helps to show the magnitude of the installations. As much as I would love a piece of that saffron fabric, I love the care the artists put into preserving the environments they are creating in, and recycling their materials as opposed to crass commericialization. Always controversial artists, you can put me in the fan column. I may have missed the Gates, but I'm sorely tempted to plan a family vacation to raft the Arkansas in Colorado in 2012 under the silvery fabric panels. Want to join me?
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Lynn: When Cindy first wanted to find this book I was lukewarm. I knew it was Greenberg and Jordan whose books I really admire but I admit to not knowing much about Christo and Jeanne-Claude. I had a sort of vague negative impression gained from often scornful commentators and grainy newspaper photographs. Boy was I wrong! This book knocked my socks off and opened my eyes to these amazing artists. The stunning cover leads into a series of beautiful photographs that capture the amazing scale and impact of the art. The accompanying text is fascinating and conveys both the philosophy behind the art and the artists’ admirable perseverance and attention to detail. I had no idea that the artists fund their own work nor was I aware that they recycled all project materials. If this book has been in your maybe file, move it up to must buy! It is gorgeous, inspiring - and mind-changing.

Sandy's Circus: A Story about Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrations by Boris Kulilov (Penguin/Viking, 2008)

Lynn: This exuberant picture book biography focuses on Calder’s early years and perfectly captures the love of life reflected in his art. Playful illustrations convey a sense of whimsy and delight as well as Calder’s attention to intricate detail. Especially effective are pages that show huge hands working with the tiny pieces of wire, bringing his delightful circus to life, and the pages showing a giant Calder carrying his suitcases striding over the cities. This wonderful book is sure to ignite the imaginations of budding artists and engineers of all ages! Anyone who reads this book will come away smiling. Check out this clip of Calder in his later years demonstrating the circus.
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Cindy: I really, really, love this book. Ok, I know we don't let our BBYA teens get away with such lameness, so I'll expand, but first, did I tell you that I really LOVE this book? This is a picture book that older teens and adults will enjoy as much as young children, maybe more. Stone's solid storytelling is perfectly accompanied by colorful illustrations that exemplify Calder's palate. I was familiar with Calder's mobiles, but didn't know that he had INVENTED the form. And, I'd love for Santa to leave a miniature circus animal in my stocking! There's a great story here, too, about how our childhood experiences influence who we become, and in the importance of following our dreams and interests. I just bought this book for my daughter who is planning to study math and statistics in college next year but really wants to major in art. I think this would be a great gift for many graduates as they close their suitcases, click, click, click, and head off to pursue their dreams. I really LOVE this book.

Tadpole Rex by Kurt Cyrus (Harcourt, 2008)

Lynn: Deep in the goop of a long-ago swamp
A whopping big dinosaur went for a stomp.

In the footprint puddle, Tadpole Rex swims and grows, accompanied by the floops and fleeps of emerging arms and legs. Tadpole Rex’s inner tyrannosaur grows biggest of all though and he challenges the world with a roar of “ribbet” - much to the delight of the five-year-old reviewers in my house. I think this is their favorite picture book of the year - and it may be mine too. We love the vivid pallet of browns, greens and yellows of the bloopy swamp, the frog-eye level perspectives and the inventive page design. The text is delightful and perfect for reading aloud – which we do over and over again. Nicely incorporated science information rounds out a book ideal for the tadpoles in your life.
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Cindy: This book makes me miss my public library days as it just NEEDS to be presented in a story hour setting to fully appreciate the illustrations from a distance as well as from a lap--and the rhyming, bouncing, text is perfect for read-alouds. I'm thankful for publishers who include art detail information. Some of the illustrations look like woodcuts (a favorite form of mine) but the end matter says this was created on scratchboard and then digitally colored. We originally planned to focus this blog on middle and teen readers, but we're addicted to picture books, too, so books for all ages will be included. I think we all have an inner tyrannosaur--just one more reason to ROAR about this brilliant book.

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.
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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!

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...
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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.

Mystery of the Fool and the Vanisher by David and Ruth Ellwand

Cindy: I love authors and publishers who take a risk on books and this quirky gem delighted me when I first read it last spring. This one falls into the read-it-again-and-again category because you need multiple reads to figure out what is going on...and even then you aren't sure. The discovery of a chest of artifacts left by a photographer who worked on an archeological dig and claimed to photograph a fairy is the centerpiece of several mysteries and disappearances. What do you think happened? Even if you can't decide, the photographs and collage illustrations will delight, just as the author's 2002 book, Fairie-ality, (also published by Candlewick) did.
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Lynn: OK - I get that the pictures are cool and the book design is cooler and we're supposed to feel tantalized and eerily puzzled. Instead I finished the book feeling irritated. It was just not enough for me. It was like getting one lick of my favorite flavor ice cream, finding one shoe in the closet, restoring two sentences of a stunningly written review I forgot to save. I like my fantasies at least 300 pages long and packed with detail! This was just a beautiful tease.

Traction Man Meets Turbodog by Mini Grey

Cindy: I was so excited to get my hands on this sequel to a favorite picture book. This is one that parents and grandparents will not mind rereading and that I found my 17-yr-old daughter sneaking a look at yesterday. Anyone who has lost a trusty friend or a security item, or who has had to dig through a trash bin, will find empathy with poor Traction Man who finds Turbodog a poor substition for his trusty pet, Scrubbing Brush who has gone missing. Evil parents who are more concerned with hygiene than loyalty learn an important lesson here.
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Lynn: Anyone who spends more than 5 minutes with me hears about my 5-year-old twin grandsons who spend part of every day with me. They love books and I have loved diving back into the fabulous world of picture books with them. The boys have strong opinions about what we read - hmmm, wonder where THAT comes from - and we all love this new adventure with Traction Man and Scrubbing Brush. The bin creatures are wonderfully weird and we all laughed about Turbodog's watery fate. This gets our Read-It-Again-and-Again stamp of approval. Don't miss Traction Man, always appropriately garbed, in his latest adventure!

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka

Lynn: My house is overflowing with Y chromosomes but this laugh-out-loud book is for anyone who is a guy or knows a guy! Jon Scieszka's tales of the 6 little boy Scieszka's growing up in Flint, Michigan is guaranteed to to make the crankiest grump feel better. I prescribe reading one of these short chapters after work/school every day to induce instant laughter. Caution - readers exposed to only a few pages may experience an overwhelming impulse to read the stories aloud to companions or even perfect strangers! I'm not sure what is funniest but it may be a tie between the chapter about 4 little boys all "crossing swords" or the chapter with the car trip, a Stuckey's pecan log and a barfing cat! I do know I laughed so hard that I got the hiccups!
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Cindy: OMG. I am married to a knucklehead! He came from a family of six children, attended parochial school, and tried most of these stunts, I'm sure. The only saving grace for him (and me) is that four of his siblings were girls. I'm buying copies of this for all of them, and his mother and brother, for Christmas. Our family photo albums look just like Jon's photos. This is a guaranteed hit for reading aloud and would be a great stepping off point for journal entries or writing and storytelling assignments. The book design from the comic book format of the cover to the silhouettes of little green army guys scattered throughout is fabulous. I hope that little boys are still spending their summers being "wild explorers of the land" and are not parked in front of video games all summer--their stories just won't be as much fun when they are older otherwise. My husband is going to read this next, but I've already read half of it aloud to him. It won't matter, it'll be just as funny the second time around.

Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson

Lynn: "I suddenly saw it, the clue that changed everything." Scott Nelson's journey to discover if John Henry was a real person makes for exciting reading in this beautifully designed book. He takes the reader step by step through the research process, from dead ends and roadblocks to the hard work and inspiration that helped him to solve the problem. Young readers get a taste of what it is really like to do historical research and along the way they will learn a lot about the time, the events and forces that shape our world.

This is the kind of nonfiction that inspires and motivates and is fun too! The endnotes are fascinating and the section by Marc Aronson on "How To Be a Historian" is also very well done.
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Cindy: I'll never hear the ballad of John Henry again that I won't think of this wonderful book. Teachers should have success using this book to illuminate the research process, but teens who give it a chance will be sucked into the mystery from the first page. A must purchase for school and public libraries...and a darn fine holiday gift book as well.

A River of Words:The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jennifer Bryant

Cindy:

This is Just to Say...





I have eaten
the words
that were in
this biography

and which
were so beautifully
illustrated
for devouring

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so filling

This is a beautiful book from end paper to end paper. The simple biography of how this physician made time in his day to write poetry is perfectly illustrated with Melissa Sweet's collages. I love the inclusion of his poetry drafts typed on his prescription pads. I hope those were authentic! This would pair nicely with LOVE THAT DOG and the newly released HATE THAT CAT by Sharon Creech. Of course, it is also for poetry lovers of all ages.
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Lynn: Yes! We agree completely here.This enchanting book succeeds in so many ways. As a biography of Williams it is informative, interesting and inspiring. As an introduction to Williams' poetry is it provides wonderful examples in unique ways that yield an almost irresistible impulse to run to the library for more. Visually this book is a gem, with treasures to be found on every page. It is a book that inspires a reader to linger.