What Are You Reading?- October 28, 2012

Thanks to Book Journey for starting this whole thing!

Thanks also to Teach Mentor Texts for their focus on Children’s Literature of this meme!

If you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to use the hashtag #IMWAYR when sharing your link!

I would say this week was pretty uneventful. Although, I did attend the National Novel Writing Month Kick-Off party here in Portand. I don’t know if I’ll actually end up writing a novel in a month but I’m feeling rejuvenated with my writing- and not just with blogging- so I’m hoping it’ll last more than a day!

Books Read This Week
-The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson [*]- A quick read that pretty much has everything I enjoy: the love of words and making lists!

Children’s Books Read
-Andrew Drew and Drew by Barney Saltzberg [*]
-The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli, Illustrated by Anne Wilsdorf [*]- I read this for my online Writing for Children class and I was surprised that I liked it.
-Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, Illustrated by Julie Paschkis [*]- The illustrations are interesting but I would recommend “The Dreamer” by Pam Munoz Ryan instead.
-When Stella was Very, Very Small by Marie-Louise Gay [*][A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]
-Stella, Fairy of the Forest by Marie-Louise Gay [*] [A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]
-Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin [*- My Pick of the Week]
-Stella, Star of the Sea by Marie-Louise Gay [*] [A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]
-Stella, Princess of the Sky by Marie-Louise Gay [*] [A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]
-Stella, Queen of the Snow by Marie-Louise Gay [*] [A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]

My Rating Scale
X= Skip it!
*= Liked it
**= Recommended

Note: I also listened to Neil Gaiman’s short story on Audible “Click-Clack the Rattlebag.” You can read why you should download it here.

I decided to try and complete my A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge. I’m glad I discovered Marie-Louise Gray. She created such memorable characters with her sister-brother duo of Stella and Sam!

I checked out “Noli Me Tangere” by Jose Rizal, which is a Filipino novel written in 1887 translated as “Touch Me Not.” I remember reading it in Tagalog for school over a decade ago. I picked up this English edition but probably found it too depressing so I stopped. About a year later, I figured I’d try and finish it although some of the plot points are now way too fuzzy in my mind!

Anyway, Happy Reading everyone!

All Hallow’s Read: Give a Book This Halloween

With Halloween just a few days away, I wanted share this wonderful festive idea: All Hallow’s Read. Instead of (or in addition to) giving out candy, give a book this Halloween.

While the concept isn’t exactly new and, in fact, I just met someone who’s been giving out books to kids in her neighborhood for almost two decades (and I’m helping her out!), I’m glad the idea is getting some traction.

Who better to lead this effort than Neil Gaiman himself? While I’ve never been a fan of his books, I’ve got to admit he’s wildly creative. Watch this hilarious video explaining what All Hallow’s Read is all about.

The site also includes book recommendations, stickers, bookmarks, posters for the event, and even a printable, foldable, and giveaway-able mini-book of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.”

As I was writing this, I learned about another cool thing Neil Gaiman is doing for All Hallow’s Read in partnership with Audible and that benefits DonorsChoose.org. Intrigued? Read his blog post for more information!

What scary story would you give out on All Hallow’s Read?

What Are You Reading?- October 21, 2012

Thanks to Book Journey for starting this whole thing!

Thanks also to Teach Mentor Texts for their focus on Children’s Literature of this meme!

If you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to use the hashtag #IMWAYR when sharing your link!

Wordstock wrapped up on Sunday. It was a great opportunity to be surrounded by other book lovers. I was amazed by how incredibly nice the authors (Tad Hills and John Stephens just to name a couple) were in stopping by our booth to sign their books for us. I wrote a wrap up of Wordstock and other events at Green Bean Books on our blog.

Me at Wordstock

I did get to post my review for “The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom” by Christopher Healy.

I got to see Jasper Fforde speak again. He was as funny and intelligent as last time. I highly recommend you all check him out especially his Thursday Next series. The latest one “The Woman Who Died a Lot” was just released- as well as his first novel for kids “The Last Dragonslayer.”

I was exploring Portland and ran across this Book Tree. I love how this really is a city of readers.

Book Tree

I volunteered with Friends of the Multnomah County Library’s 40th Birthday Bash. I wrote an article for them regarding my book club visit for Naseem Rakha’s “The Crying Tree.”

The online class Writing for Children I signed up for started this week. It’s definitely interesting how much time I’ll put into it since it’s free and there’s really no accountability.

I also finished my Caldecott Reading Challenge! I’ll write about that eventually. It was funny reading a couple of them while riding public transportation and librarians (of course!) recognizing them.

Children’s Books Read This Week
-The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship by Arthur Ransome; Illustrated by Uri Shulevitz [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-The Girl Who Loved Horses by Paul Goble [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Chanticleer and the Fox by Geoffrey Chaucer; Illustrated by Barbara Cooney [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood; Illustrated by Renata Liwska [*]
-A Story, A Story by Gail E. Haley [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Oliver by Birgitta Sif [*]- Check out this shelftalker I made!

Oliver Shelftalker

Oliver is a great picture book that celebrates creativity, individuality and friendship!

-The Funny Little Woman by Arlene Mosel; Illustrated by Blair Lent [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Finders Keepers by Will Lipkind; Illustrated by Nicolas Mordvinoff [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Earl the Squirrel by Don Freeman [*- My Pick of the Week]- I may be biased because it has my name but it really is a cute story!

EARL THE SQUIRREL by DON FREEMAN may just be the BEST book we have in the store not just because of the main character’s name but it truly is a fun adventure story about friendship, being independent and resourceful, and proving oneself!!!

My Rating Scale
X= Skip it!
*= Liked it
**= Recommended

I picked up “The End of the Alphabet” by C.S. Richardson because the title alone sounded interesting. I don’t know how much reading I’ll actually get done since I also want to finish my Disney Animated Movies Challenge in which I’ve been watching the (currently) 51 films in reverse chronological order.

Happy Reading everyone!

Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom
By Christopher Healy
Illustrated by Todd Harris

Christopher Healy’s “The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom” has been on my ever-growing “to-read” list since it was first published earlier this year. The fact he was going to come to Green Bean Books shot it straight towards the top. I wanted to be prepared for the event.

I was relieved that I actually enjoyed the book!

Readers will enjoy the twists with the stories and characters they may be familiar with- Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and their respective Princes Charming. While our heroes do have to battle trolls, dragons, and witches (or, at least, one of each), it’s also a journey of self-discovery and finding out what one is truly capable of. Amid all their adventures, it was great to see the friendships between the characters develop.

Christopher Healy has a great cinematic writing style. Combine that with his humorous storytelling, not only does it make for a fun quick read despite it being over 400 pages, it’s no surprise that the movie rights has already been picked up. I’m already looking forward to its sequel “The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle” slated for an April 2013 release.

It was interesting to help plan and promote the event. Kellie (a friendly representative from Walden Pond Press, who published the book) organized a gift basket of local stores’ merchandise and gift certificates to raffle off at the reading.

I got a chance to talk to Christopher Healy before he had to read. Some of the things I found out were:
-he’s already well into the third book in the series
-how fantasy books with maps are usually much cooler than those without one
-he’s totally separate from the movie production of his book
-he reads a lot of other middle reader novels for “market research”
-there’s a different illustrator used in the UK editions-I thought Todd Harris’ drawings added a great visual element to the story!
-he was a haunted house zombie for one Halloween

The fact that I liked the book helped me handsell it. I even made a shelftalker.

Be sure to check out the new website for the series– full of fun stuff to explore.

“The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom” is definitely a book I’ll be recommending to young readers wanting a good entertaining adventure novel set in a world of fantasy and fairy tales.

What Are You Reading?- October 14, 2012

Thanks to Book Journey for starting this whole thing!

Thanks also to Teach Mentor Texts for their focus on Children’s Literature of this meme!

If you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to use the hashtag #IMWAYR when sharing your link!

This was another full week. I can’t say I don’t like it. I like having things to do!

I attended a Banned Books Week reading. It’s crazy that books are still being challenged! One of the most memorable parts was when one of the authors (Vanessa Vaselka, “Zazen”) got emotional reading a passage from one of my 36 favorite Favorite Books- “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. It just went to show how much power there are in words!

One of the perks in working at a bookstore is when authors come in randomly. Alexis M. Smith who wrote “Glaciers” stopped by to shop and even signed her book for us!

I also ran an in-store event where I showed kids and their parents to make origami jack-o-lanterns. It was unexpected busy but I enjoyed seeing how creative the children got!

Some folks for the origami jack-o-lantern craft project

I attended a library book club for Naseem Rakha’s “The Crying Tree.” I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the actual discussion. It was a bonus that the author was there!

Also, events for Wordstock- Portland’s annual literary festival- have been going on all week. I loved their pop-up readings this year! We also had an author reading in our store for one of the authors- Christopher Healy, “The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom.” (I’ll write a blog post about this later.)

Shelftalker: “The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom” by Christopher Healy

Display: “The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom” by Christopher Healy

Children’s Books Read This Week
-Nine Days to Christmas: A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Noah’s Ark by Jacob Revius; Illustrated by Peter Spier [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall; Illustrated by Barbara Cooney [*][Caldecott Reading Challenge]
-This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen [*]- I surprisingly enjoyed this book more than “I Want My Hat Back”
-The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy [*- My Pick of the Week]
-Look… Look Again! By John O’Brien [*]- I found the illustrations (comic strip style) quite hilarious, definitely quirky visual brain teasers.
-(Oliver) by Christopher Franceshelli [*]- An interesting novelty board book for kids
-Popville by Anouck Boisrobert [*]- A fine example of great paper engineering that tells a story.

My Rating Scale
X= Skip it!
*= Liked it
**= Recommended

I bought the two Jasper Fforde novels a couple of weeks ago- “The Woman Who Died A Lot” and “The Last Dragonslayer”- so I’ll probably read at least one of those. I also borrowed a pile of Caldecott winning books for my Reading Challenge. I’m almost done with reading them all. But I have another rather busy week ahead.

Happy Reading everyone!

What Are You Reading?- October 7, 2012

Thanks to Book Journey for starting this whole thing!

Thanks also to Teach Mentor Texts for their focus on Children’s Literature of this meme!

If you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to use the hashtag #IMWAYR when sharing your link!

I can’t even really remember what I did this past week.

Of course, it was Banned Books Week. I had intended to do a post or two about it but I guess I was too busy. I did manage to write some BBW entries on my other blog- Library Hopping.

I also made shelftalkers for “Wonder” and “Spartacus and the Circus of Shadows.”

Books Read This Week
-The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon [**- My Pick of the Week]- This is another one of those books that’s a must-read for any book lover. Stories within stories, mysteries upon mysteries. Very layered and masterfully told. One of my favorite favorites!
-Library Wars: Love and War, Volume I by Kiiro Yumi; Original Concept by Hiro Arikawa [*]- This was my first time reading a manga and it definitely took awhile to get used to! The title of the series caught my eye so I just had to read it and it was actually quite perfect since it was Banned Books Week.

Children’s Books
-How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? By Jane Yolen and Mark Teague [*] [A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]
-Let’s Go for a Drive! By Mo Willems [*] [A to Z Children’s Picture Book Series Reading Challenge]

My Rating Scale
X= Skip it!
*= Liked it
**= Recommended

I had received J.K. Rowling’s “The Casual Vacancy” from the laundry and the writing was so bad I returned it. I was so disappointed that by adult they meant lots of swearing and sexually explicit content. I’m still reading “The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom” by Christopher Healy since he’s coming to our store this Saturday!

Happy Reading Week everyone!