Book Recommendations

In honor of a couple of my

younger, eager-to-read (I hope!)

cousins from VA -Shannon and Jack-

here are two book suggestions.

If there are any 4th (or 5th) graders

reading this, don't worry. Either book

would be fine for you guys.
Shannon,
just so you don't feel like we're going easy on you (gonna be a 9th grader!?), there's a note on the end about a title for definitely older readers. I apologize for the messed up font size. Part of an experiment with HTML that's going to end in the next paragraph.

OK, here goes!


Sea Queens:
Women Pirates Around the World
is written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Christine Joy Pratt. I love this style of illustration, first and foremost. When I saw Sea Queens, with its artfully done front image and lovely lettering, I *did* judge it by its cover and picked it up. This book's fearsome female subjects come from a wide time range (more than 2500 years, if my math is correct). The author - known for, among other things, assembling excellent collections of stories and tales with wonderful illustrator collaborations – uses short chapters to investigate a range of pirates who happened to be of the female persuasion.

I hope my technical skills are up to this: click on the picture of the book and you should be able to go to the website of the book's publisher. There you will find a wealth of reviews and other images. You'll also be able to set up an order, if you so choose.

For me, however, this book has the sort of pen/ink drawings that look almost like woodcuttings (I am a big Michael McCurdy fan, not to mention being a Barry Moser worshipper – both pretty great using woodcuttings). The artist's work adds to the kind of "nautical feel" I got from reading this book. Aside from my own enjoyment, this book will give me something to offer the kids who, when learning about the fascinating role pirates played in history (and, to some extent, how they are affecting our own global commerces today), ask: "Were there any girls or ladies who were pirates?" These Sea Queens can hold their own with any story of Captain Kidd or Blackbeard. This post is coming to an end, but move down to see the other suggestion(s).

Book Recommendation (another part)

OK. That's enough messing with the font size and editing HTML. This post will stick to the agenda. Next book suggestion is one that we ordered for the classroom this year, but since it came in right before vacation, it didn't get a lot of time to be featured. A few kids were intrigued by the illustrations, though there is a haunting and surreal quality to them. While the Bone series – that's the one that most kids would grab when I took out the graphic novels bin – captivated "the masses" with its comic-book format and clear, colorful (in the re-released format, anyway) pictures, this book's layout and mysterious, thought-provoking images may have required more time to connect with. However, the reward for sticking with this book is well worth the puzzling (a reward in and of itself)! The book, already??? It's Shaun Tan's Tales From Outer Suburbia. It's a collection of short stories (more than a dozen) along with some pieces that aren't as clearly structured with the familiar beginning-middle-end format. You could just create your own stories as you scan the pictures and wonder how they all connect. Reading the text, younger readers may need some help – this is the kind of book an adult and child could share and enjoy together. I could picture a parent reading the text while the child pores over the artwork, maybe. It might take some time and even fortitude to delve into the tales, but Outer Suburbia is a "place" worth the effort. Click on the book cover image to visit the publisher's page (I hope this isn't illegal to use it here? I got it from the site I am linking it to.)

By the way, if you think you recognize the name of the author, it might be because of his previous book, The Arrival. That was some kind of awesome addition to the library – "a wordless graphic novel", as some call it – and I talked about it so much last year, I needed to chill out on it. BUT, do visit Shaun Tan's website for a look at all of his other titles and some other interesting stuff!

Well, this is really a problem with my writing style. It seems these blog entries are too long! Anyone who made it this far must be a good reader, and probably can endure a lot of rambling. So, rather than make a new post for my final suggestion FOR OLDER READERS only (grade 8 and above) I'll bury it in this post.

I bought the book The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness, after a month or so of the title knocking about my skull, like a strange tune on the radio (ever hear "Day N Night" by Kid Cudi?) that I would try to remember and listen for again. The book is the first in a series called "Chaos Walking" and after I finally picked it up, it sat around for another month collecting dust. I was struck by some of the clever tricks the printing features – no pictures in this one – and some of the ways the narrator "worded" things. After struggling through the first forty pages or so, I found the book's momentum and there was no putting it down after that. It deals with the protagonist's forced flight from his home, alone, as some menacing developments in his community suggest a fearsome battle or event is about to happen. I don't want to give away any more of the plot by explaining any further – this blog entry is soooo long already! I just gotta say, though: one event in the story threw me for such a loop, sticking with me the next day in school to the extent that I found I had to explain to my class why I seemed a little distant for an hour in the morning. The book has some powerful scenes that are quite strong in imagery and intense at an emotional level (call me a sucker). I remember reading Stephen King's stuff in middle school, so I might not have minded some of the stuff in this book as an adolescent kid. While it is scary at times, however, there isn't much that's inappropriate for a seasoned teen reader – one or two bits of colorful language along with the aforementioned imagery which captured remarkably the "chaos" and fear which you'd imagine occurring as you flee a menacing force. I cannot wait for the next installment of this series! Hope you enjoyed these suggestions! For more, try the Indie Next List for Kids.

Do you think
all these links work?
Thanks for reading...