Tandem Insights

New and Exciting in August

All week I’ve been featuring romantic, fantasy, vampire-centric YA chick fic. While I do enjoy that genre, I don’t confine my reading exclusively to it. So here are a couple of my favorite non-romance/fantasies that came out in the month of August.

Another Book about Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Bad is Mark Gonyea’s follow-up to A Book about Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Good (which didn’t come out in August, but is still an exciting book, if not new). These all-ages books explain good design, be it complicated or simple. Using bright colors and basic shapes, Gonyea covers composition, line, color, and contrast and how to get across what’s really important.

Bone #6: Old Man's Cave continues the reprinting of Jeff Smith’s Bone series in gorgeous, rich, full color, and the intense red eyes of the rat creatures continue to freak me out. Color is also used to great effect when several of the villagers attempt to throttle Phoney Bone for swindling them (guiltly) and destroying their town (not guilty). Full of humor and suspense, Book Six features the beginning of a showdown between the Hooded One and the people of the valley. Rock Jaw from Book Five is back, much to Thorn and Fone Bone's dismay. The Bone series is a perfect way to start a graphic novel collection, as it can appeal to anyone from mid-elementary age on up.

For some fun, browsing-friendly nonfiction, try Richard Platt’s They Wore What?!: The Weird History of Fashion and Beauty and They Played What?!: The Weird History of Sports and Recreation. The weird and wacky are, let’s face it, highly entertaining. And these books should provide lots of amusement for elementary and middle school age kids. Among the other crazy facts contained in the bright, photo-filled pages are a ball game in which the losing team was murdered and corsets so tight they cracked ribs!

Here's a list of exciting August releases, and, yes, it does include a romance or fantasy or two.

If You Like Twilight...

So your YA girls can’t get enough of Bella Swan and her star-crossed romance with the incredibly gorgeous vampire Edward? Maybe some of them even prefer Bella’s werewolf friend Jacob who also happens to be madly in love with her. They’ve already devoured Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. Breaking Dawn, the continuation of this love story, won’t be out for a whole very, very long year. What books are out there to satisfy the romantic cravings of those YA girls? We’ve created a list of some titles we think might just take the edge off the long wait.

Wicked Lovely features fairies instead of vampires, and instead of Aislinn wanting to become a fairie, she desperately wants to stay human. But there’s still a love triangle with lots of lovely tension. The Summer King needs Aislinn to become his Summer Queen. Aislinn has always been taught to avoid fairies. Besides, she has a human boyfriend whom she loves to distraction. Unfortunately for her, the wicked Winter Queen has other ideas, and Aislinn is swept up in a faerie war. Her limited options are death, reign as Summer Queen, or, failing that, become the Winter Girl, as all failed potential Summer Queens are cursed to do. This one felt a lot like Twilight to me, with the world of the faeries colliding with that of the humans with Aislinn caught between the two.

The fantastic and romantic are in evidence from the beginning in Keturah and Lord Death. Keturah, a storyteller, lost in the woods and close to death, meets a surprisingly dashing Lord Death. She spins him a story about a girl searching for true love. However, the story has no ending, so Lord Death allows her one more day to find her true love. But as Keturah examines her life and her village, she begins to wonder who her true love really is – the local lord’s son or Lord Death himself. Keturah, like Bella, is an outsider among a group of close-knit locals; she's always felt herself to be apart, different, which can be a very appealing aspect to a teen trying to navigate the treacherous currents of adolescence.

Here it is: vampires and werewolves together in the same book. In Tantalize, Quincie, human, loves with a hybrid-werewolf, Kieran, and works in a vampire-themed restaurant. This time it's the werewolf who does not want to return the hero's affections, for fear of hurting her. When the chef at the restaurant is murdered, werewolf-style, suspicion falls on Kieran. But what’s up with the new chef and his bizarre menus? Not to mention Quincie’s increasing dependence on a blood-red beverage…

For more great suggestions for your Stephenie Meyer fans: If You Like Twilight...

Book of the Week: Eclipse

Stephenie Meyer had better be writing very, very fast. The legions of teenage fans who got hooked with Twilight and devoured its sequel New Moon will make quick work of the 600-plus page Eclipse, the third volume in the saga of star-crossed love. Fall 2008, the scheduled release date of the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, will seem eons away for members of "Team Edward” and “Team Jacob,” the camps into which readers divide themselves.

In Eclipse, Bella is back, still madly in love with vampire Edward, still torn about her heartfelt friendship with werewolf Jacob. Unfortunately for her, Victoria, an evil vampire, is also back, still seeking revenge on Bella. The series of Seattle murders that scare all the members of small town, Forks, are at the heart of Victoria’s plans; she’s creating an army of new vampires to wipe out both Bella and the Cullens. The new vampires’ single-minded bloodlust troubles Bella who desperately wants to become a vampire so she can spend eternity with Edward. She is also haunted by the thought of losing Jacob, whose vampire-hunting werewolf pack will play a significant role in the confrontation between the two vampire groups.

Meyer has invented some fascinating vampire history, especially that of several members of the Cullen clan. She has also captured that “This thing happening to me right now is the most important thing ever to happen in the history of the world!!!” quality of teen feelings and decisions. Readers will swoon over the continued intensity of the teen angst and love that captured them in the first two novels and will avidly, impatiently, breathlessly await the next volume.

View this book in the Tandem Library Books Online Bookstore

Women's Equality Day Round Up

According to a proclamation by the President of the United States of America:

“Our Nation is grateful for the bold leadership of American women who have opened doors of opportunity for women of future generations. On Women's Equality Day we honor the suffragists and all those who seek to expand equality in our world.”

This week marks eighty-seven years since the 19th amendment was ratified, and it is a great opportunity to highlight some of the women who have fought for equality. 

A group of women that really stood out to me were those who changed the way female journalists were viewed in the 1920s and 1930s.  Women like Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller, and Dickey Chappelle weren’t the “sob sisters” whose stories were relegated to the Women’s sections of newspapers.  They wanted to be where the action was, and they didn’t stop until they got there.  Catherine Gourley tells the stories of these and other women who set the stage for female journalists today in War, Women, and the News: How Female Journalists Won the Battle to Cover World War II.  Middle and high schoolers with an interest in history or journalism will be hooked by the daring adventures of these women.

Elementary and middle schoolers get an A to Z introduction to a determined group of women in Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World by Cynthia Chin-Lee.  Some of these women your students have probably heard about a million times, but others will be new to them.  The illustrations by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy are a striking complement to the text. This is a great first stop to whet readers’ appetite for more information on these amazing women.

Younger readers interested in politics might be interested in knowing more about Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to win a seat in the House of Representatives. Jeannette Rankin: First Lady of Congress by Trish Marx tells the story of Rankin’s fight for suffrage, her election to office, and her commitment to peace.  This illustration chapter book biography is a simple introduction to a woman who spent her life working to better the lives of women and children. 

Expand your students’ knowledge of these diverse and determined women in their efforts to change the world as they knew it with these books this Women’s Equality Day.

For Your Youngest Readers

Choosing picture books that will entice your pre-readers is no easy task, but if you have the right books, reading with this age group is very rewarding.  They can now understand more complex stories that you won’t mind repeating as many times as they will want to hear it.  But what makes a good picture book for your pre-readers?

Here are some elements that we recommend looking for:

• Repetition – Get kids involved with the storytime by allowing them to predict what comes next.
• Language Play – Use these stories to develop early phonemic awareness.
• Rhythm and Rhyme – These stories read aloud well and invite listener participation.

Other aspects to think about are humor, surprising endings, unusual characters and child-friendly illustrations.

We especially liked the illustrations in Digby Takes Charge by Caroline Jayne Church, which depict the determination of Digby the sheep dog to make the sheep do what he wants them to do, and the satisfaction on both his and the sheep’s faces when they finally find a solution that makes them all happy.  This is a cute animal story that teaches the importance of “please” without taking itself too seriously.

Add to your collection of Mother Goose rhymes with Mother Goose's Storytime Nursery Rhymes by Alison Green and illustrated by Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo), which puts the familiar rhymes into a narrative context that will catch kids’ interest and help them to see how the stories relate to their lives as Mother Goose tells the stories to her goslings to keep them from wandering off.  Designed to be read aloud, this volume of familiar and forgotten favorites will bring to life these stories to a new generation.

And don’t forget to introduce your youngest readers to poetry.  There are so many great children’s poetry collections out there, but even so, you will not want to be without Jane Yolen’s latest offering: Here's a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry.  This collection of sixty poems by various writers is specifically designed with preschoolers and primary graders in mind.  With starred reviews from both SLJ and Booklist to urge you on, this oversize volume should not be overlooked.

More great suggestions for your preschoolers to first graders: New Picture Books for PreK-1

Book of the Week: If I Were a Lion

 

From the time-out chair comes the innocent-seeming question “Wild?  Who me?”  The little girl proclaims her sweetness in comparison to the truly wild—bears, wolves, lions, etc.  Those are the animals that can truly cause the damage of which she has been accused.  Kids will no doubt relate to the situation and appreciate the wild imagination of the little girl. 

But it’s the illustrations that really make this book stand out.  Solomon’s mixed media illustrations convey the mischievous gleam in the little girl’s eyes as she makes her case, comparing her actions to the fierce and ferocious creatures she conjures up in her imagination.    Of course, throughout the book, we can see the crayon drawings on the wall that appear in the corner near the time-out chair.  Observant kids will have much to pore over in these not-quite-realistic scenes.

The rhyming verse and surreal depictions of animals make this a winner to share with groups of young children. 

View this book on the Tandem Library Books Online Bookstore

Welcome!

Welcome to the Tandem Insights blog! 

The Tandem Library Books Collection Development Team has been a fan of the kidlitosphere for a long time now, and now we're jumping into it ourselves.  We are very excited to begin blogging about the books we love, and we hope our readers will be too!