Tandem Insights

Best of the Year Round Up

2007 has been a great year in kidlit land. Here at Tandem Insights we’ve highlighted several of our favorites: see our posts on Elephant & Piggie, Elijah of Buxton, or Long May She Reign. The best-of-the-year lists are now available from Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal, two sources we know and trust. We came up with our own Tandem version of a Best of 2007 list, and then decided to compare notes and see which titles everybody agreed on.
There are four unanimous choices: (Drumroll, please!)

Orange Pear Apple Bear, by Emily Gravett

Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

You can find all three complete lists in the Tandem online bookstore:
2007 Publisher's Weekly Best Children's Books
2007 Best Books from SLJ
Tandem Best Books of 2007

Book of the Week: Orange Pear Apple Bear

Who knew a book comprised of just four simple words could be so much fun? Try saying it aloud: this title has a lyrical, song-like quality. British author Emily Gravett is one of our favorite authors of late, and her newest title does not disappoint. In Orange Pear Apple Bear, pastel watercolors illustrate variations on the word groupings. Gravett says the inspiration for this book came from reading Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which promotes proper grammar. I recently shared this book with a group of preschoolers, who delighted in “reading” along with me by using the pictures as clues.

Gravett’s forthcoming picture book, Monkey and Me, is scheduled for US release in March 2008.

View other titles by Emily Gravett: Wolves and Meerkat Mail

Last Minute Costume Ideas

If you’re anything like me, you have a tendency to leave things till the last possible minute. Well folks, Halloween is tomorrow… if you don’t have your costume together yet, here are some ideas you might try, and the book associations they might conjure up:

Fancy Rabbit: Edward Tulane

Red dress, black-and-white striped tights, Pig snout: Olivia

Cowboy hat & plaid shirt: The Misadventures of Maude March

Orange jumpsuit, shovel: Camp Green Lake captive (Holes)

Dog: HMS Beagle (Higher Power of Lucky)

Princess Dress: Miri (Priness Academy)

Ballet outfit: Siena (To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel)

Leather jacket & Mohawk: King Maggot (Born to Rock)

 

Book of the Week: Knuffle Bunny Too

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Tale of Mistaken Identity 

Mo Willems knows kids, and kids know Knuffle Bunny.

The time is right for a sequel to the smash hit 2005 Caldecott Honor Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. Allow me to set the scene: It’s been two years since the Laundromat Incident. Trixie is now an articulate preschooler; able to communicate in complete sentences and, like most kids her age, talking a LOT. Knuffle Bunny is headed to school with Trixie for show-and-tell. When they arrive, the case of mistaken identity begins to take shape, involving an identical Knuffle Bunny brought to class by another girl. Will it be a showdown, or an instant bonding for the classmates (and the bunnies)? You’ll have to see for yourself.

The funny illustrations match the style of the first book, featuring black-and-white photos of Park Slope, Brooklyn with Willems’s colorful drawings of the human (and bunny) characters added in. As with all of Willems’ books, sly details are thrown in that adults will find hilarious. My favorite part is when the girls argue over the correct pronunciation of “Knuffle,” a nod to actual debate among readers when the first book came out. Willems’ ability to bridge the gap between adult humor and childhood events makes reading his picture books a delightful experience for all.

Click here to view in the Tandem Library Books online bookstore.

You Can't Spell "Tandem" Without T-E-A-M: Recap of a Speech by Author Catherine Thimmesh

It’s always fun to connect with authors in real life. There are several children’s and YA authors living in our hometown, the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and we keep our eyes peeled in case we run ever into one at the grocery store or walking the dog. Even better, this week we had the chance to hear local author Catherine Thimmesh’s keynote speech at the University of Minnesota Book Week event.

Catherine is the winner of the 2007 Sibert Medal for Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon. Her speech discussed the research process behind this fascinating story, as well as the question she is most often asked by readers: “How do you get your ideas?” In the case of Team Moon, the answer was, quite literally, “By staring out the window!” After conducting taped interviews, visiting the NASA archives in Washington, D.C., and poring over lots of source material, Catherine began writing. Her goal for the book was to create a succinct narrative that emphasized the importance of the team as a whole.

Here at Tandem Insights, the team mindset prevails. So we appreciated her opinion when asked what she hopes readers will take from Team Moon: Catherine wants readers to realize the potential in teamwork. She feels that society has moved away from cooperative efforts and toward a “me-centered” culture where success equates to individual triumph. Most people think only of the astronauts when they think of the moon landing. But there really were 400,000 people involved in getting it right. One of them was actually in attendance at this lecture! Toward the end of the Q&A, a woman raised her hand and identified herself as someone who helped arrange housing for the engineers.

There are tons of interesting facts and stories in Catherine Thimmesh’s lively books. Click here for a list of all her titles in the Tandem Library Books online bookstore. And keep up the good teamwork!

Book of the Week: The Arrival

There’s been a lot of talk lately about authors and illustrators from Australia. Shaun Tan, an established artist from Western Australia, offers his newest book this month to an American audience. The Arrival is a stunning wordless graphic novel. (The Arthur Levine version is a reprint of an earlier Australian edition.) The story follows the journey of a man from his unnamed home country to a confusing new world which, despite presenting immense obstacles, offers the hope of a better life for his family. Because there are no words, the sepia-toned drawings carry the narrative, relying on the reader’s interpretations to complete the experience. I think this is what I appreciated most about the book: There are a lot of images and concepts that don’t make sense on first inspection, so as a reader you have to apply your own powers of perception, and you get to take part in the creation of the narrative.

In an essay for Viewpoint magazine, Shaun Tan had this to say:
“I am rarely interested in symbolic meanings, where one thing ‘stands for’ something else, because this dissolves the power of fiction to be reinterpreted. I’m more attracted to a kind of intuitive resonance or poetry we can enjoy when looking at pictures, and ‘understanding’ what we see without necessarily being able to articulate it.”

As a librarian and an avid reader, I’m surrounded by powerful words and their meanings. Reading The Arrival, I felt liberated from the obligation to make meaning, and enjoyed being able to let the pictures speak to me without making up a linear storyline. Questions came up, and my ideas about what was going on were constantly changing. For me, reading this book was a very emotional experience. In a manifestation of the old adage, a picture truly tells a thousand stories.

View this book in the Tandem Library Books Online Bookstore

Phonics Comics

           

Let’s face it: kids love graphic novels. Their popularity is ever increasing. Last week’s blog posts featured a bunch of really stellar graphic novels that no library should be without. But we also know there are still some haters out there. For anyone who thinks that graphic novels have no business in the classroom or in helping kids learn, I’d like to suggest the Phonics Comics series from the small publisher Innovative Kids.

These leveled readers are the same trim size as other familiar early reader series. The stories combine phonics-based narratives with bright, comic-style illustrations that support the text. Struggling or reluctant early readers will likely feel comfortable with the paneled format and the straightforward, sans-serif text in the talking bubbles. There are stories about dinosaurs, robots, and flying ponies, among other intriguing subjects. Each volume contains three separate stories, so they can be read in short bursts or all at once. The cartoon-like illustrations definitely have kid appeal. Developed with the help of a literacy educator, these fun stories support the tenets of the NCLB fluent literacy platform in a fun, exciting way.

View these books in the Tandem Library Books Online Bookstore

Celebrate Grandparents' Day!

Here are some great titles featuring grandparents and grandkids.

Sitti’s Secrets, by Naomi Shihab Nye (Gr. K-3) Mona, an American girl, travels to the Middle East to visit her Palestinian grandmother, known as Sitti.

Morning on the Lake, by Jan B. Waboose (Gr. K-3)  A contemporary Ojibway grandfather takes his grandson on an early morning canoe trip and introduces him to sacred traditions and beliefs.

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech (Gr. 3-6) – A contemporary classic! While on a car trip, Sal tells her beloved grandparents a story about her best friend, which is ultimately a way for Sal to share her own feelings about her mother’s decision to leave her father and move away from Sal.

Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes (Gr. 5-8) – Martha spends the summer with her family at the beachfront, where she begins to feel caught between the worlds of childhood and adulthood. Martha’s wise and trustworthy grandmother encourages her to take ownership of her feelings and to be who she is.

A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, by Richard Peck (Gr. 7-12)Grandma Dowdel has my vote as the single most memorable grandmother in the history of literature. Follow the adventures of her teenaged grandkids as they spend summers “down south” at her farm.

 

Elephant and Piggie Books

Get ready for the funniest books of the year! I was audibly cracking up the first time I read these, in the publisher’s booth at the ALA exhibit. Mo Willems has created the ultimate early reader series. Lovable characters, humorous stories, and brilliant, deceptively simple illustrations make these irresistible.

Elephant Gerald (Get it? Say it aloud, and think of jazz music) and Piggie are best friends. Piggie has a generally positive outlook on things, while Gerald tends toward pessimism. Each book in the series follows a conversation they are having with each other. These books are great choices for reading along with young kids -- have the adult do one character and the child the other.

Check out Piggie’s facial expression when she shows her party invitation to Gerald in my personal favorite of the four books, I Am Invited to a Party! (pg. 6). The characters’ emotions are impeccably conveyed in Willems’ pencil-and-ink illustrations. That’s what makes these characters and their stories so endearing. If it were up to me, one of these books would definitely win the Geisel Award this year.

View these titles in the Tandem Library Books Online Bookstore

Book of the Week: Hiromi's Hands

This well-researched picture book biography is especially credible due to the fact that Lynne Barasch knows her subject personally: Hiromi Suzuki is a childhood friend of her daughter.

Not so long ago, Hiromi’s father was a hardworking chef at the family’s Japanese restaurant in New York City. He began taking Hiromi with him to the fish market when she expressed interest in the business and the time-honored traditions of sushi preparation. Itamae-san, professional sushi chefs, historically have always been male. “People thought a woman's soft, warm hands would spoil the fish” (Barasch).Growing up, Hiromi respected this tradition but didn’t let it dissuade her from her life’s ambition. Learning from her father, who encouraged her despite the enormous obstacles he knew she would face, Hiromi developed her skills and remained focused on her goal.

Hiromi’s father, impressed by her talent and devotion, gave her a job at the family restaurant. The word got out and soon Hiromi was a celebrated itamae-san in her own right. This story, illustrated with soft watercolors, will fascinate readers of all ages and serve as an inspiration for pursuing one’s dreams. Barasch provides an author’s note as well as sushi terms and techniques to supplement the story.

View this book in the Tandem Library Books Online Bookstore