The Little Book Room: Book Reviews for Children

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) announces 2010 Notable Children’s Books

silverrod — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:35:36 +0000

CHICAGO – The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected its 2010 list of Notable Children’s Books. The list of titles includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry and picture books of special interest, quality, creativity and value to children 14 years of age and younger.

The list follows:

Younger Readers
“All the World.” By Liz Garton Scanlon. Illus. by Marla Frazee. Beach Lane.
“Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!” By Geoffrey Hayes. Illus. by the author. TOON.
“Big Wolf and Little Wolf.” By Nadine Brun-Cosme. Illus. by Olivier Tallec; Trans. by Claudia Bedrick. Enchanted Lion.
“Birds.” By Kevin Henkes. Illus. by Laura Dronzek. Greenwillow.
“A Book.” By Mordicai Gerstein. Illus. by the author. Roaring Brook.
“Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day; Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros.” By Pat Mora. Illus. by Rafael López. Rayo.
“The Curious Garden.” By Peter Brown. Illus. by the author. Little, Brown.
“Gracias * Thanks.” By Pat Mora. Illus. by John Parra. Lee & Low.
“Higher! Higher!” By Leslie Patricelli. Illus. by the author. Candlewick.
“I Spy Fly Guy!” By Tedd Arnold. Illus. by the author. Scholastic.
“Little Mouse Gets Ready.” By Jeff Smith. Illus. by the author. TOON.
“Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and ‘Three Cups of Tea.’” By Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth. Collages by Susan L. Roth. Dial.
“Mommy, Mama, and Me.” By Lesléa Newman. Illus. by Carol Thompson. Tricycle.
“Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends.” By Wong Herbert Yee. Illus. by the author. Houghton.
“My Abuelita.” By Tony Johnston. Illus. by Yuyi Morales. Harcourt.
“Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day.” By Kate McMullan. Illus. by R. W. Alley. Dial.
“Posy.” By Linda Newbery. Illus. by Catherine Rayner. Atheneum.
“Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors.” By Joyce Sidman. Illus. by Pamela Zagarenski. Houghton.
“Thunder-Boomer!” By Shutta Crum. Illus. by Carol Thompson. Clarion.
“Waiting for Winter.” By Sebastian Meschenmoser. Illus. by the author. Kane Miller.
“Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales.” By Lucy Cousins. Illus. by the author. Candlewick.

Older Readers

“Anything But Typical.” By Nora Raleigh Baskin. Simon & Schuster.
“Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream.” By Tanya Lee Stone. Candlewick.
“Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.” By Phillip Hoose. Farrar/ Melanie Kroupa.
“The Giant-Slayer.” By Iain Lawrence. Delacorte.
“The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum.” By Candace Fleming. Random/Schwartz & Wade.
“Leviathan.” By Scott Westerfeld. Illus. by Keith Thompson. Simon Pulse.
“The Lost Conspiracy.” By Frances Hardinge. HarperCollins.
“Marching for Freedom: Walk together, children, and don’t you grow weary.” By Elizabeth Partridge. Viking.
“Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness.” By Nahoko Uehashi. Illus. by Yuko Shimizu. Trans. by Cathy Hirano. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine.
“Mother Poems.” By Hope Anita Smith. Illus. by the author. Holt/Christy Ottaviano Books.
“Mr. Lincoln’s High-Tech War: How the North Used the Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons, Ironclads, High-Powered Weapons, and More to Win the Civil War.” By Thomas B. Allen & Roger MacBride Allen. National Geographic.
“Return to Sender.” By Julia Alvarez . Knopf.
“The Rock and the River.” By Kekla Magoon. Aladdin.
“Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World.” By Marilyn Nelson. Illus. by Jerry Pinkney. Dial.
“Tales from Outer Suburbia.” By Shaun Tan. Illus. by the author. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine.
“tofu quilt.” By ching yeung russell. Lee & Low.
“Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales.” Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Viking.
“Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting.” By Jim Murphy. Scholastic.
“Wild Things.” By Clay Carmichael. Front Street.
“Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.” By Sally M. Walker. Carolrhoda.
“Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl.” By Albert Marrin. Dutton.
All Ages
“Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Song.” By Ashley Bryan. Photographs by Bill McGuinness. Atheneum.
“Duck! Rabbit!” By Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Illus. by Tom Lichtenheld. Chronicle.
“The Lion & the Mouse.” By Jerry Pinkney. Illus. by the author. Little, Brown.
“Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11.” By Brian Floca. Illus. by the author. Atheneum/Richard Jackson.
“My People.” By Langston Hughes. Photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr. Atheneum/ Ginee Seo.
“Redwoods.” By Jason Chin. Illus. by the author. Flash Point.
For the annotated 2010 list and past Notable Children’s Books lists, please visit the ALSC Web site. More information about all of ALSC’s Children’s Notable Lists (books, recordings, and videos) is also available on the Web site: www.ala.org/alsc, click on “Awards & Grants” and “Children’s Notable Lists.”
Members of the 2010 Notable Children’s Books Committee are:

Eliza T. Dresang, chair, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.; Beth Gerall, NoveList, Durham, N.C.; Sue C. Kimmel, Gillespie Park Elementary School, Greensboro, N.C.; Kathie Meizner, Montgomery County Public Libraries, Silver Spring, Md.; Marie Orlando, North Shore Public Library, Wading River, N.Y.; Michael Rogalla, Champaign Public Library, Champaign, Ill.; Ed Spicer, Michigan Reading Journal, Allegan, Mich.; Sally Anne Thompson, Paradise Valley, Ariz.; Tanya Tullos, Region 4 Education Service Center, Houston, Texas; Andrea Vaughn, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Mary R. Voors, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Ind.

The list follows:

Middle Readers
“Adventures in Cartooning.” By James Sturm, Andrew Arnold and Alexis Frederick-Frost. Illus. by the authors. First Second.
“An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers.” By Natasha Wing. Illus. by Julia Breckenreid. Holt.
“Anne Frank: Her life in words and pictures from the archives of The Anne Frank House.” By Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol. Roaring Brook.
“Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal.” By Vaunda Micheaux Nelson. Illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Carolrhoda.
“Crow Call.” By Lois Lowry. Illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline. Scholastic.
“The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors.” By Chris Barton. Illus. by Tony Persiani. Charlesbridge.
“Diego: Bigger Than Life.” By Carmen T. Bernier-Grand. Illus. by David Diaz. Marshall Cavendish.
“Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea.” By Steve Jenkins. Illus. by the author. Houghton.
“Eidi.” By Bodil Bredsdorff. Trans. by Kathryn Mahaffy. Farrar Straus Giroux.
“The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.” By Jacqueline Kelly. Holt.
“A Faraway Island.” By Annika Thor. Trans by Linda Schenck. Delacorte.
“Federico García Lorca.” By Georgina Lázaro. Illus. by Enrique S. Moreiro. Lectorum.
“The Frog Scientist.” By Pamela S.Turner. Photographs by Andy Comins. Houghton.
“The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust.” By Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix. Illus. by the authors. Holiday.
“How Oliver Olson Changed the World.” By Claudia Mills. Illus. by Heather Maione. Farrar.
“In the Belly of an Ox: The Unexpected Photographic Adventures of Richard and Cherry Kearton.” By Rebecca Bond. Illus. by the author. Houghton.
“The Magician’s Elephant.” By Kate DiCamillo. Illus. by Yoko Tanaka. Candlewick.
“The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg.” By Rodman Philbrick. Blue Sky.
“Pharaoh’s Boat.” By David L. Weitzman. Illus. by the author. Houghton.
“River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River.” By Hudson Talbott. Illus. by the author. Putnam.
“The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis.” By Barbara O’Connor. Farrar.
“The Storm in the Barn.” By Matt Phelan. Illus. by the author. Candlewick.
“Tsunami!” By Kimiko Kajikawa. Illus. by Ed Young. Philomel.
“When You Reach Me.” By Rebecca Stead. Random/Wendy Lamb.
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.” By Grace Lin. Illus. by the author. Little, Brown.
“A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk: A Forest of Poems.” By Deborah Ruddell Illus. by Joan Rankin. Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry.
“You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!” By Jonah Winter. Illus. by André Carrilho. Random/Schwartz & Wade.
Older Readers
“Anything But Typical.” By Nora Raleigh Baskin. Simon & Schuster.
“Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream.” By Tanya Lee Stone. Candlewick.
“Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.” By Phillip Hoose. Farrar/ Melanie Kroupa.
“The Giant-Slayer.” By Iain Lawrence. Delacorte.
“The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P.T. Barnum.” By Candace Fleming. Random/Schwartz & Wade.
“Leviathan.” By Scott Westerfeld. Illus. by Keith Thompson. Simon Pulse.
“The Lost Conspiracy.” By Frances Hardinge. HarperCollins.
“Marching for Freedom: Walk together, children, and don’t you grow weary.” By Elizabeth Partridge. Viking.
“Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness.” By Nahoko Uehashi. Illus. by Yuko Shimizu. Trans. by Cathy Hirano. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine.
“Mother Poems.” By Hope Anita Smith. Illus. by the author. Holt/Christy Ottaviano Books.
“Mr. Lincoln’s High-Tech War: How the North Used the Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons, Ironclads, High-Powered Weapons, and More to Win the Civil War.” By Thomas B. Allen & Roger MacBride Allen. National Geographic.
“Return to Sender.” By Julia Alvarez . Knopf.
“The Rock and the River.” By Kekla Magoon. Aladdin.
“Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World.” By Marilyn Nelson. Illus. by Jerry Pinkney. Dial.
“Tales from Outer Suburbia.” By Shaun Tan. Illus. by the author. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine.
“tofu quilt.” By ching yeung russell. Lee & Low.
“Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales.” Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. Viking.
“Truce: The Day the Soldiers Stopped Fighting.” By Jim Murphy. Scholastic.
“Wild Things.” By Clay Carmichael. Front Street.
“Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland.” By Sally M. Walker. Carolrhoda.
“Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl.” By Albert Marrin. Dutton.
All Ages
“Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Song.” By Ashley Bryan. Photographs by Bill McGuinness. Atheneum.
“Duck! Rabbit!” By Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Illus. by Tom Lichtenheld. Chronicle.
“The Lion & the Mouse.” By Jerry Pinkney. Illus. by the author. Little, Brown.
“Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11.” By Brian Floca. Illus. by the author. Atheneum/Richard Jackson.
“My People.” By Langston Hughes. Photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr. Atheneum/ Ginee Seo.
“Redwoods.” By Jason Chin. Illus. by the author. Flash Point.
For the annotated 2010 list and past Notable Children’s Books lists, please visit the ALSC Web site. More information about all of ALSC’s Children’s Notable Lists (books, recordings, and videos) is also available on the Web site: www.ala.org/alsc, click on “Awards & Grants” and “Children’s Notable Lists.”
Members of the 2010 Notable Children’s Books Committee are:

Fox Walked Alone by Barbara Reid

silverrod — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:28:05 +0000

Albert Whitman, 2009. ISBN: 9780807525487

This variation of the story of Noah and the Ark features a puzzled, but curious fox who feels compelled to stay awake during the daylight hours in which he is accustomed to sleeping, and to travel, day after day. As he goes along, he meets up with a multitude of animals, walking in the same direction in pairs. Just in case some of these animals were dangerous, Fox followed along at a distance, staying out of sight. As the sky fills with clouds, Fox sees the ark in the valley below him, and meets his mate. The pair file into the Ark just as the rain begins to fall. The story ends with an illustration of the ark sailing in the flooded waters, and then a cameo of the two foxes sitting together under a rainbow. There is no reference to the bible story other than the use of the name, Noah. The illustrations are cleverly done in Plasticine which works especially well to create texture and depth. A “Notable” Sydney Taylor Award book.

Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter

silverrod — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:03:33 +0000

Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster, 2009. ISBN 9781416994374

Basing the book on a true story, Winter tells how Afghani women resisted the Taliban and continued to teach their daughters in secret, home-based schools. An introduction, which can serve as a starting point for discussion with older readers, explains the differences in women’s lives before and after the Taliban seized control. The story itself addresses younger readers effectively.

When soldiers take Nasreen’s father away, her mother sets off in search for him and doesn’t return. Nasreen stops talking, and just sits, waiting. As her despair grows worse, her grandmother finally decides to risk taking her outside to a school for girls that she has heard about. As time passes, Nasreen still doesn’t speak. But after the winter break, she responds in a whisper to one of her classmates, and finally begins to smile and talk, and learn, and to find comfort in the discovery that her country was once filled with artists and writers and mystics, and that there was a bigger world outside. Winter’s beautiful illustrations work for story time, but a closer perusal provides an even deeper engagement with the text.

Is it Night or Day? by Fern Shuman Chapman

silverrod — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:10:38 +0000

Farrar, Straus, Giroux ISBN: 9780374177447

This novel is based on the experiences of the author’s mother who, in 1938, at the age of twelve was sent from Germany to Chicago to live with an aunt, uncle, and cousin. Her older sister had been sent separately a year before. Edith travels with a group of other Jewish children, escorted by a young woman who was part of an American rescue effort that placed 1000 children in foster homes in the United States.

Arriving in Chicago, Edith discovers that her presence is only tolerated because her aunt wants someone to do the chores, and because the family receives a small stipend for taking her in. Kept constantly busy with housework, it is weeks before Edith can see her sister, Betty, who has emotionally replaced her with the daughter of her foster family. Meanwhile, Edith is doing everything she can to raise money to rescue her parents.

Chapman makes effective use of a first person, chronological narrative to develop the story. She chooses her scenes well to reveal Edith’s loneliness and isolation as she tries to adjust to her circumstances, and the reader is quickly engaged, and cares what happens to her. Edith comes across as a complex and realistic young person who has much to struggle with. Dialogue is effective and realistic, sometimes painfully so. The ending leaves the reader wanting to know what happens next, and is perhaps the only part of the book where Edith seems older than she really is in the story.

Emma’s Poem, The Voice of the Statue of Liberty by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Claire Nivola

silverrod — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:35:50 +0000

Houghton Mifflin, 2010 ISBN: 978054717845

This beautiful blending of words and pictures tells the story of how Emma Lazarus, author of the familiar words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free,” grew up wealthy and protected, came to care for, and help the immigrants arriving in America, many of them Jews like her, and how through her writing, she attempted to turn public opinion toward a greater acceptance of these new Americans-to-be.

The book works well to link the past with the present, with the cover showing people of many cultures in the present day, looking out over the water to the iconic figure of the Statue of Liberty. The choice to place a facsimile of “The New Colossus,” with its old-fashioned script on the flyleaf, plunges the reader into the past, and sets the stage for the story to come. The picture of the Statue under construction, followed a few pages later with the completed Statue, bring the story full circle. Even the use of old family photographs with the author and illustrator information serves to show the timeless meaning of the Statue and the poem.

The pictures are full of detail, and the pages laid-out with lots of space, inviting the reader to take time over the story. The author’s note giving more detail about Lazarus’s short life, and the full text of the poem will interest older readers who may want to know more.

The book reflects the importance Jews place on the work of Tikkun Olam, the repairing of the world, as it tells the story of a young Jewish woman who did what she could to make the world a better place for others, and it is also a book that celebrates the fact that ours is a nation of immigrants.

The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow

silverrod — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:17:36 +0000

Amulet Books, 2010 ISBN: 9780810984219

Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang have been best friends practically forever. Like most girls, they want to be popular, and they worry about the pressures of junior high. With the idea of recreating themselves over the coming year they embark on a project to figure out how to become popular. They keep a secret notebook, with Julie recording the results of their various experiments in words and pictures, while the braver Lydia will be the subject (or victim) of these attempts to understand what it is that popularity is all about.

They try to bleach Lydia’s hair with laundry bleach; try to be interested in boys that the popular girls seem to think are interesting – or try to be interested in boys at all; they try to convince their parents’ they need cell phones (Julie has two dads, something that is only mentioned in passing, although they do appear in the story periodically); join sports that they aren’t really interested in; try out for the school play; enter the talent show, etc.

They make some new friends, learn that the popular girls have problems of their own, have a falling out, and come back together again.

The characterizations are spot-on, the graphic format appealing for the age group, and preteen girls will recognize themselves in Julie and Lydia, and laugh at, and with them.

An Interview with Annika Thor, author of the 2010 Sydney Taylor Honor Book ” A Faraway Island”

silverrod — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:32:22 +0000

Annika Thor grew up in a Jewish family in Gothenburg, Sweden in the 1950s and 60s. She started work as a librarian, and then went on to work as a film and television critic, and finally dedicated herself to writing books, plays and screenplays for young people. She is one of Sweden’s best known authors for young people. Her books have been translated into many languages, and have won many prizes.

“A Faraway Island,” about Austrian refugee sisters, Stephie and Nellie, is the first in a series of four, and so far the only one to be translated into English. It has won awards in Europe, and has been made into a television series in Sweden. It received two United States honors this year; not only was it chosen as one of two Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Older Readers, but it won the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best book in translation.

It is my honor to talk with Annika Thor.

Hello Annika,

Since many young people may not know much about the role of Sweden during World War II, I have a some questions about that, as well as questions about your book, and Jewish life in Sweden during the war, and immediate post-war period, as well as now.

Sweden acted in many contradictory ways as a supposedly neutral country during the war. Nazi soldiers were allowed to travel through Sweden during the war years, and Sweden exported ore to the German government, which was presumably used for the building of tanks, airplanes, and weapons. On the other hand, Sweden rescued thousands of Jews through the work of Raoul Wallenberg and others, and saved almost all of the Jews of Denmark. Why do you think Sweden helped both the Nazis and the Jews during the war?

The principle that guided more or less all decisions taken by the Swedish government during the war was that of neutrality: of keeping out of the war at any cost. During the first years of the war, until the German defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943, this meant making concessions to various demands from the Germans, who were seen as the stronger party, such as permitting soldiers and materials (though in principle not weapons) to be transported through Sweden, and continuing exportation of iron ore and other goods (which, of course, was also in the interest of Swedish industry). After [the Battle of] Stalingrad [in which the Germans were soundly defeated], fear of the Germans became less dominant and the transportation of soldiers ceased in the summer of 1943. As it became increasingly clear that the Allies would eventually win the war, the Swedish government gradually changed its orientation.

However, this is not the full explanation for the efforts that were made in order to rescue Jews. As for the Danish Jews (and also those of the Norwegian Jews who were not already deported in the fall of 1942), the feeling of Nordic solidarity was an important factor, and when the “White Buses” started rolling towards the end of the war, the primary goal was to rescue Norwegian and Danish citizens – Jewish and non-Jewish – from the concentration camps; although in the end many other nationalities were also brought to Sweden on the buses. Finally, a few individuals played an important part. Without Raul Wallenberg himself, the Jewish businessman Gilel Storch, the Swedish count Lennart Bernadotte and many others, most of the rescue actions would probably not have taken place at all.

Can you explain what the “White Buses” were? What comes to my mind are the vans the Germans used to gas small groups of Jews before they began to use the gas chambers.

No, on the contrary! In the spring of 1945, the Swedish Red Cross, led by the Swedish count Lennart Bernadotte, drove buses (painted white with a red cross) to the concentration camps in Germany to bring prisoners back to Scandinavia. Permission to do this was negotiated with German authorities. Originally, the aim was to rescue Danish and Norwegian citizens only, but in the end at least 15,000 people (many of them women) of different nationalities were rescued. You can read more on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Buses.

I find it interesting that you say that Nordic solidarity led to the concern for the Jewish populations of those countries, which was very much in contrast to the attitudes of other European countries who were only too glad to see the Jews as other, and to strip them of the protections of citizenship.

Yes, I think there was a difference in the way that Norwegian and Danish Jews could be regarded as “Norwegians” and “Danes” and therefore worthy of more concern than for example German or Polish Jews. Still, there was a lot of xenophobia and racism in Sweden as well, and some newspapers described the Danish Jews in a way that drew strongly on antisemitic stereotypes (for instance describing them as expensively dressed, in fur coats and with expensive jewelry …) A very interesting doctoral thesis which was published a few years ago (“A brother, guest, and parasite”) deals with the interplay between antisemitism and “the Nordic idea” during and immediately after the war (unfortunately, it is written in Swedish with only a brief English summary). On the whole, there is has been a strong interest in this period among younger historians for the past fifteen years or so!

Of the many stories you could have written about the Swedish rescue of Jews during the war, what inspired you to write this particular story?

Quite a few of the Jews who were rescued from the concentration camps have written down their own memories, in the form of autobiographies or fictional stories. I feel that these stories should be told by the people who experienced them, because they are beyond the imagination of us who did not. In contrast, very little had been written by or about the children who came with the Kindertransport before the war until I started to work on this theme (a doctoral theses on the subject was published in the same year as my first book, 1996), and I felt that the experiences that they went through are in a sense more universal and more suitable to interpret for someone with a different background.

Also, in the early 1990’s, there was an increase in the number of children and teenagers coming alone as refugees from countries like Iran and Somalia, and I felt that writing about the child refugees of WWII could also have some bearing on the current situation. Finally, the theme gave me the chance of contrasting Central European Jewish culture with Swedish ways of life, something which I myself experienced a generation later.

What was it like for you to grow up as a Jew in the immediate post-war years?

I was born in 1950, so by the time I became aware that I was Jewish and started to have some sense of what that meant, it was already the early 1960’s and fifteen years had passed since the war. Unlike many in my generation, I was not the child of survivors – my paternal grandparents had come to Sweden from Belarus at the turn of the century, and my mother came to Sweden in 1933, at the age of six, with her parents and younger brother. But the experience of the Holocaust was still very present in the minds of my parents, their friends and our relatives, so there was a kind of fear that was transmitted to me and other children. At one point in the early 60’s there was a brief outbreak of anti-Semitism in the form of graffiti on the doors of the synagogue and so on, and I remember being frightened that worse things would follow.

I was never explicitly told [about the Holocaust], but I knew anyway (and I did read a children’s book by a Dutch author called “Star Children” which made such a strong impression on me that I never allowed my own children to read it …) But I remember nightmares about Nazis coming to get me.

Also, in those days Sweden was not yet an immigrant country. I was the only one (or at least that is how it felt) in my class with brown eyes and black hair, and I felt different, which is a feeling that children usually do not like. I wanted to be like everybody else, and I hated it when strangers would ask me: “Where do you come from?” (I used to answer with the part of the city of Gothenburg where I grew up). But I think that this feeling of being different, of being an outsider, is very useful for someone who is to become a writer!

What is it like for Jewish children to grow up in Sweden today?

I am not really the right person to answer that question. My two daughters are now 33 and 28 years old, and their father is not Jewish, so they have not had the kind of Jewish upbringing that I myself had. But one negative thing that they did not have to experience is the feeling of being different that I just described. Today, there are many children and young people with brown eyes and dark hair in Sweden: some of them are Jewish, some are Kurdish or Turkish or Palestinian, or from Bosnia, Iran or Iraq – and my daughters have friends from most of these places. It is for this multicultural society that I write!

Were you surprised that your books about Stephie and Nellie are so popular in Sweden, and now in the rest of the world?

I was not so surprised that they became popular in Sweden – though neither I, nor my publisher could have foreseen the extent of their popularity, with still new editions being published after almost fifteen years and an even more popular TV-series which has now been broadcast for the third time. The books tell a story that has not been told before and that was not at all well known in Sweden when they were first published. At the same time, they depict events and emotions that are easy to identify with, even if you were born in Sweden and lived here all your life. And for many immigrant children in Sweden, they have become a way of processing their own situation “at a distance”, which is sometimes easier than through a story that is closer to their own lives.

What really surprised me was that the books also became so popular abroad, not only in Germany (which is, after all, not so surprising), or in the Nordic and other European countries, but also in countries like Japan and South Korea, where there is no Jewish population at all. This spring, I am going first to Japan, then to Russia, in connection with the appearance of the fourth and final book in the series, and I am really looking forward to discussing the books with readers in those countries.

The scene where Stephie and Nellie are taken to the revival meeting is very disturbing. Was it common for host families to take their Jewish children to Church, and did they often try to convert them?

According to Ingrid Lomfors, the Swedish historian who wrote her thesis on the children of the Kindertransport, only a minority of the children could be taken in by Jewish families (there were not that many Jews in Sweden at the time). Most came to ordinary Swedish families, which meant that it was very difficult for them to maintain Jewish traditions (but of course, quite a few of the children, like Stephie and Nellie, came from more or less secular Jewish homes). The majority of the Swedish families were probably only conventionally Christian, and did not try to convert the children, though they probably took them to church on Christmas and other special occasions. However, a minority of the host families belonged to different evangelistic movements, and for them saving the children from the Nazis and “saving” them by converting them were more or less the same thing. The chapter about the revival meeting is based on a true story.

Actually, this scene is so shocking that I don’t think I would have dared to include it had it not been based on facts! I have had several interesting discussions with people belonging to evangelistic movements about conversions of the children; of course, nowadays even they agree that this was wrong.

I understand that you are the author of a great number of books besides the books about Stephie and Nellie. Do you often write about Jewish themes for children?

No, I do not consider myself a “Jewish writer” in that sense, though I believe that growing up in a Jewish family has affected my choice of themes and my manner of treating them profoundly. My father, a secular Jew who still identified strongly with the Jewish people, taught me that the essence of Judaism was to always support the weak against the strong. This is at the heart of my writing, along with moral questions and choices, and the feeling of being an outsider, but the books about Stephie and Nellie are the only ones so far where I have treated these themes in a Jewish context.

Annika, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions!

Edgar Nominees for the Best Mysteries for Children – Awards to be Announced April 29, 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City

silverrod — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:02:59 +0000

The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (S & S, 2009) by Mac Barnett. In his first case, Steve Bixton has a national treasure to recover, a criminal mastermind to unmask, and a social studies report due Monday—all while on the run from cops, thugs, and secret-agent librarians.

The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour (Random, 2009) by Michael D. Beil. Sleuths in school uniforms who decide to help out a weird lady, and end up hiding under tables, tackling word puzzles and geometry equations, and searching rather moldy storage rooms for “the stuff that dreams are made of” (that’s from an old detective movie). There’s a boy who complicates things.

Closed for the Season (Houghton, 2009) by Mary Downing Hahn. Arthur and Logan set out to solve the mystery of a murder that took place some years ago in the old house Logan’s family has just moved into. The boys’ quest takes them to the highest and lowest levels of society in their small Maryland town, and eventually to a derelict amusement park that is supposedly closed for the season.

Creepy Crawly Crime (Holt, 2009) by Aaron Reynolds. A graphic novel has Joey Fly trying to find a stolen diamond pencil box for his beautiful butterfly customer.

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline (Penguin, 2009) by Nancy Springer. Part of a series, Enola’s landlady, Mrs. Tupper, is abducted, and Enola will put absolutely everything at risk to find her.

Of these, I’ve only read the last title, and I highly recommend it and this series.

Information from School Library Journal “Extra Helping” Online, January 27, 2010.

2010 Sydney Taylor Book Awards Announced

silverrod — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:40:01 +0000

New York – January, 2010
April Halprin Wayland and Stephane Jorisch, author and illustrator of New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story, Robin Friedman, author of The Importance of Wings, and Margarita Engle, author of Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, are the 2010 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award.

The Sydney Taylor Book Award honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series. The winners will receive their awards at the Association of Jewish Libraries convention in Seattle this July.

For Younger Readers
Wayland and Jorisch will receive the 2010 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Younger Readers Category for New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story, published by Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. The Jewish New Year is a special time of year, with a change in seasons, symbolic foods and other traditions. It is also the time for introspection and the ritual of Tashlich, when sins are symbolically cast into a body of flowing water. Izzy thinks about things for which he is sorry. He “compares Tashlich to cleaning out his toy closet, an example of the wonderful way this story conveys to children, at their own level, a contemporary version of the healthy Jewish way we start fresh at the beginning of each new year,” commented Susan Berson, a member of the Award Committee. Incoming Committee Chair Barbara Bietz noted that the “whimsical watercolor illustrations are a perfect pairing for the delightful prose.”

For Older Readers
Friedman will receive the 2010 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Older Readers Category for The Importance of Wings, published by Charlesbridge. Ah, the drama of being in eighth grade! There’s the boy you have a crush on who likes someone else. There’s getting dressed in gym class and being picked last for teams. There’s your parents, who are so unlike Mike and Carol Brady and not even like Ma and Pa Ingalls. And there’s your hair, that won’t go in the popular feathered back style that everyone else is wearing. When an Israeli girl moves next door, Liat “not only shows Roxanne how to give her hair ‘wings,’ but she helps her ‘wing’ her way toward maturity and self-esteem,” asserted Debbie Colodny, a member of the Award Committee. Another Award Committee member, Kathy Bloomfield, affirmed this praise: “With appealing and affecting writing, Ms. Friedman grabs the reader immediately and takes her on a journey of self-discovery, confidence building and empowerment that will leave her hoping for a sequel.” Friedman’s book about male bulimia, Nothing, was named an AJL Notable Book for Teen Readers last year.

For Teen Readers
Engle will receive the 2010 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Teen Readers Category for Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, published by Henry Holt, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. After Kristallnacht, many Jews tried to leave Germany, but other countries refused the refugees. Cuba agreed to take in some of these people, but at a price. The tension of this era is seen through the eyes of several of the people affected: Daniel, a thirteen-year-old German boy whose parents put him on a boat to “the Americas,” hoping to save his life; Paloma, the daughter of a Cuban official who prefers a dovecote to her home; David, who escaped the pogroms of Russia, sells ice creams, and helps the new refugees; and Gordo, Paloma’s father, who is profiting by charging exorbitant fees for visas to stay in Cuba. “The verse and the different perspectives make the history of Cuba during the Nazi era accessible while illustrating the complicated situations and the twists and turns of political interactions,” noted Kathe Pinchuck, Committee Chair. Ms. Engle is known to readers for her Newbery-Honor book The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom, for which she also won the Pura Belpre Award.

Honor Books & Notable Books
Eight Sydney Taylor Honor Books were named for 2010. For Younger Readers, Honor Books are: Nachshon Who Was Afraid to Swim by Deborah Bodin Cohen with illustrations by Jago (Kar-Ben), Benjamin and the Silver Goblet by Jacqueline Jules with illustrations by Natascia Ugliano (Kar-Ben), Yankee at the Seder by Elka Weber with illustrations by Adam Gustavson (Tricycle Press) and You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax? by Jonah Winter with illustrations and an amazing lenticular cover by Andre Carrilho (Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House). Two works in translation were named Honor Books for Older Readers: Anne Frank: Her Life in Words and Pictures by Menno Metselaar and Ruud van der Rol (translated by Arnold J. Pomerans) (Roaring Brook Press/Flash Point, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group) and A Faraway Island by Annika Thor (translated by Linda Schenck) (Delacorte Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House). Lost, a historical novel by Jacqueline Davies (Marshall Cavendish) and Naomi’s Song, a biblical fiction by Selma Kritzer Silverberg (JPS) were named Honor Books in the Teen Reader Category.

The JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible by Ellen Frankel with illustrations by Avi Katz (JPS) was named a Notable Book for All Ages. The Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee was very impressed with Ms. Frankel’s retelling of biblical stories. “She succeeds in creating an age-appropriate interpretation of the most intriguing and familiar stories that allow families to glean the essence of Jewish teachings, ethics, and history,” commented Rita Soltan, Award Committee member. “Readability, faithfulness to ‘idiomatic nuances of biblical Hebrew,’ and softly rendered color illustrations are the main features of this compilation,” noted Susan Berson, Award Committee member.

In addition to the medal-winners, the Award Committee designated twenty-two Notable Books of Jewish Content for 2010: eight in the Younger Readers Category, eight in the Older Readers Category, and six for Teens. A complete list of Award, Honor, and Notable titles may be found at jewishlibraries.org/blog, and more information about the Sydney Taylor Book Award, may be found online at sydneytaylorbookaward.org. Information about the awards can also be found on the AJL Facebook page at facebook.com/jewishlibraries.

Blog Tour

A blog tour featuring winning authors and illustrators will take place February 1-5, 2010. The schedule will be posted on the Association of Jewish Libraries’ blog People of the Books at jewishlibraries.org/blog.

For more information, contact:
Kathe Pinchuck, Chair, Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee
chair@sydneytaylorbookaward.org
(973) 777-4504

Dancing Through the Snow by Jean Little

silverrod — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:52:14 +0000

Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2009 ISBN: 1935279157

It’s a few days before Christmas, and sixth-grader, Min, is being evicted from yet another foster home, not for anything she did, but because she and her foster mother Enid never hit it off–not that Min planned to try to hit it off with anyone anymore. Abandoned as a toddler by a woman who insisted she wasn’t Min’s mother (though how Min remembers this is unrealistic), Min has no idea who she is. All she knows is that she doesn’t belong anywhere, has no family, and no friends, other than Mrs. Willis from the Children’s Aid, who has always been kind and gentle with her. But even Mrs. Willis isn’t party to Min’s confidences, feelings, or tears–not that she indulges in the latter.

When Min and Enid arrive at Children’s Aid, Enid shuts herself in with Mrs. Willis, and begins to defend her decision to bring Min back. The discussion between the two becomes heated, the door swings open part way, and Min hears almost everything. Part way through this scene Dr. Jess Hart, who has been a Children’s Aid physician, and whom Min recognizes when she had pneumonia, arrives, and sits down next to Min. When Enid finally resorts to blaming Min for somehow failing to make it in her previous placements, Dr. Hart leaps up and bursts into the room, and begins bellowing at Enid, telling her that if Min were an adult she could sue her for slander. She then goes on to announce that she is taking Min home with her immediately–for as long as Min cares to stay with her. Mrs. Willis puts up a feeble protest, after all, who can she find to take Min at the last minute and right before the holidays.

Min is in shock, but remembering Dr Hart as a kind presence from when she was hospitalized, she is ready to go along with her. She realizes she feels safe for the first time.

With some minor ups and downs, Min and Jess (Dr. Hart) adjust to each other, and Min, all too quickly to be realistic, begins to open up . Starting at a new school after the holidays, Min makes friends for the first time. When Jess asks her if she can adopt her, Min is, of course, delighted, and the book ends on this happy note.

The only problem with this book is that it’s a child’s dream come true, and bears little resemblance to the experiences of real children in foster care.