Words, Words, Words

I am currently reading a dictionary. Don't worry, I'm not one of those crazies who decide to read the entire OED. It's called The Bibliophile's Dictionary and it's full of fun words for bookworms and word nerds like me. It's organized by topics and it includes examples of the words being used in literary works. Here are a few of my favorites, with shortened definitions (you're welcome):

reticent: reserved in speech; inclined to be silent (this is my favorite word for describing my personality when I meet new people)

sesquipedalian: given to using long words (I hope I'm not the only one who finds this funny)

magnanimous: noble and generous in spirit

avarice: greed

Review: The Magician's Elephant

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
Illustrated by Yoko Tanaka

“Leo Matienne had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers. He liked to ask ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’ and ‘Could it possibly be?’”

Kate DiCamillo’s books are always beautiful—rich language, stunning illustrations, touching story. And this one is no exception. She’s on my list of authors that I read every single book she writes.

So pick up The Magician’s Elephant and ask yourself, “What if?” and “Why not?” and “Could it possibly be?”

Have You Noticed?

Last week I spent some time browsing a Barnes & Noble store. I remember them having cards and word games as well as books, but this time I was amazed at how much of their store was no longer books. Especially in the kid's section. There were no longer just word-related games, but any game or toy that could be classified as a learning game. Shelf after shelf after shelf of non-book items in a bookstore.

It's sad that even a big box bookstore has to sell more than books to keep afloat these days. How do the small independent bookstores do it? Though it's not on my list of must-haves, in my dream world, wherever we move to this summer will have an independent bookstore nearby.

Review: The People of Sparks

"People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will always spring up again."

I read The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau close to five years ago. I liked it enough to borrow the movie from the library (which I liked well enough), but I hadn't sought out the sequel. My sister recently recommended the sequel, The People of Sparks, saying that she liked it more than the first one.

It's been too long since I read the first one to really compare them, but The People of Sparks was more thought provoking than I remember The City of Ember being. In this continuation, the people escape from they dying city of Ember and find that they had been living underground for generations. They find their way to Sparks, where the people rather reluctantly take in a group of backward refugees (cavepeople as they come to call them) who use up their resources and know very little about surviving on the surface.

What made this book most interesting for me is that it takes place hundreds of years after an apocalyptic event. There are a few other stories that explore the after effects of apocalypse (The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Kevin Costner in The Postman), but most seem to focus on the apocalyptic event and trying to prevent it or survive it (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Armageddon, etc.).

I used to think that I'd prefer to be killed (quickly, of course) in any sort of apocalyptic event rather than have to try to survive the aftermath. Until I became a mother last year. Now when I watch those movies my survival instinct (particularly for my daughter's survival) is much more intense.

The People of Sparks explores the world and humanity's survival long after we almost wipe ourselves out. How do they survive? When do they finally begin to thrive? And do we ever really learn from the mistakes of the past?

Review: How the States Got Their Shapes

Early one morning I was watching the History Channel and saw part of a special on how the U.S. states got their shapes. One of the people interviewed was Mark Stein, author of (can you guess?) How the States Got Their Shapes.

I wasn't able to watch much of the special, but I was intrigued so I looked up Stein's book. I enjoyed it, but I advise skimming instead of trying to delve deeply into it.

The states were organized alphabetically. Though the organization was a bit dry, I don't know how you could organize it any better. This makes it a good reference book, but not exactly gripping reading. Since every state is given it's own section, there's obviously a lot of redundancy. Once I'd read how Oregon got it's northern border, I knew how Washington got it's southern border.

I skimmed to get a general sense of the entire book and stopped to read in places where I had greater interest. I also read the whole section on any states that I've lived in or had particular interest in. I especially loved all the diagrams of the states as they are, as they were, and as they might have been.

If you like U.S. History, you'll like looking through this book. It's a fascinating look into how our nation took it's shape--which I know that I have generally taken for granted.

Newbery Goal Finished!

I set out to read all the Newbery Award Winning books when I was working in a middle school library. I had already read a handful of them, but between getting a bachelor’s degree, getting married, getting a master’s degree, and having a baby, it took me ten years to finish. As of this year, there are 89 Newbery Winning books. It’s going to be easy to keep up the goal with reading one book a year.

I certainly did not enjoy all the books. The best ones are those written in the last twenty years or so—those are the ones written for me. There are a few that stand the test of time, and even those I didn’t like told me something about the time period they were written in—it was a small window into what was considered the best literature for youth at the time.

Some people have asked if I read all the Newbery Honor books too. No, and I don’t plan to. I might occasionally seek out Newbery Honor books written in my lifetime, but there were some years that the winning book was painful to read—why would I want to submit myself to the runners up?

This long-term goal finished, I find myself a little lost. Not that there isn’t plenty to read, but do I set out to read another list? The Pulitzers? No, there are some on that list that I know I don’t want to read. Top 100 classic books? No, everyone’s list is different and none of them are my top 100. So I’m going to read whatever suits my fancy with one exception—I have begun reading the favorite books of people I know, of real everyday readers. So, what is your favorite book? What do you think everyone should read?

And since this post is not long enough, here is a recap of some of the Newbery Award Winning books. You can find a full list on the ALA Website.

Top 5 Newbery Winners I Loved as a Youth:
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley – I still read every book that McKinley writes. As a youth, I reread many of her books over and over again.
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle – This book crosses over as one of my all-time favorites. I read it at least once a year.
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell – I loved this story of a young girl who finds a way to live alone on an island. What young person doesn’t fantasize about that?
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare – My fourth grade teacher recommended this book to me, but I thought the title was weird and didn’t read it until a few years later. But then it became a favorite to read again and again.
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham – Not sure why I liked this one so much—the main character was a boy. But I read this one at least half a dozen times.

Top 5 Newbery Winners I’ve Loved as an Adult:
2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead – Beautiful and heartbreaking. This was the only Newbery Winner I read before it won.
2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – I'm a Neil Gaiman fan. And I love that a darker story won—it’s representative of the kinds of YA books that are being written right now.
2004: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo – If you watched the movie but didn’t read the book, shame on you. Read the book. 99% of the time, the book is better. And I love the illustrations.
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park – Beautiful story. I’ve only read it once, but the ending really sticks with me.
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar – I was first in line with my little brother to see the movie—which was almost as a good as the book. But the book is a different experience that should not be missed.

Other Newbery Winners that Stood Out to Me:
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson – This is a great book, but it took me at least half a dozen tries to finish it. I finally realized that it was a book I was supposed to do a book report on in front of my class in fifth grade, but I never finished it and so was humiliated in front of my class. So although it was short and an excellent story, it was one of the most difficult for me to read.
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes – I couldn’t help but laugh at the squeaky clean 1950s story of a brother and sister who lose their dog and worry that he was stolen. Their mother suggests that maybe they should lock the front door since there seems to be an “unsavory character” lurking around town.
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey – Completely disturbing. Spoiler alert: Follows a doll made of hickory with a nut for a head who is left outdoors for the winter. Ends with Miss Hickory making a stupid mistake and has her head eaten by a squirrel. Creeped me out—and they want our children to read this?
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis – I remember this book because I was studying to take the GRE while I was reading it and encountered many words that were on my vocabulary list in this book. Words that I was expected to learn to be a grad student were taken for granted in a book written for young readers over 70 years ago.
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James – Ugh. Not only an animal story from the animal’s point of view, but written in the voice of old western twang and slang. It hurt my editor’s brain to read this book.

Newbery Review: Smoky the Cowhorse

After ten years of working on the goal on and off, I finished reading all the Newbery Award Winning books last week. It was often harder than I thought, but I know that keeping it up will be a pleasure as the books that win Newbery Awards are always excellent. I will have a post about my experience soon, but here is a brief review of my final hurdle, Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James.

I know exactly why Smoky the Cowhorse won the Newbery Award in 1927. I’m sure little boys in the 1920s loved reading about a horse born wild on the range, lovingly trained by cowboy Clint to be a cowhorse, and waited breathless as Smoky went from being stolen to the rodeo circuit to eventually even being sold to the chicken feed man. (Don’t worry, Smoky is spared and though he goes through some hard years, he is eventually reunited with Clint and lives out his old age wild and free on the range again.)

But besides the fact that this is a horse book and I’ve never loved horse books, the language made this extremely difficult for me to wade through. For one thing, when Smoky is taken, the horse thief is a “half-breed” and is most often referred to as only “the breed.” Smoky gets far more respect than the man. I’m sure publishers didn’t think twice about this 80+ years ago, but it made this modern reader quite uncomfortable.

Even without some racially offensive language, the entire book offended my English major/grammar geek self. I know that it was written to sound like the slow drawl of a western cowboy, but it hurt my ears and my eyes. Here’s a small sample:

“Smoky had inherited that same instinct of his mammy’s, but on that quiet spring morning he wasn’t at all worried about enemies, his mammy was there, and besides he had a hard job ahead that was taking all of his mind to figger out, that was to stand on them long things which was fastened to his body and which kept a spraddling out in all directions.”

Two of the worst offenses were that, 1) he spelled “crethures” when all I could figure he meant was “creatures” (how would you even pronounce that?) and, 2) his favorite phrase was “would of.” This is a common mistake in written English because we pronounce “of” with a “V” sound. It is “would have.” It was consistently “would of” in the book, so it was a conscious choice. But I must ask the long-dead editor: why not “would’ve” or even “woulda”?

Oh well, it’s over. I can return the offending book to the library and look forward to books that better suit my tastes.