Two celebrations in early December

Two celebrations this weekend:

1 -- The 10 year old has turned 11.

2 -- Jane Yolen celebrates the publication of her 300th book. (announced on NPR radio, for heavens sake!)
Just click on the link. Unfortunately, the link will probably only be live for a couple of days.

-wendieO

Choose a Winner

The Newbery has been announced.
The Caldecott has been announced.
In fact, every ALA award winner can be found in this list of 100 Magnificent Children's Books on Betsy Bird's blog today.

The only problem?

You have to figure out which one of these wonderful books will be the award winners. (to be announced in January)
Your choice.
I'm sure that one of these WILL be the winners, or at least one of the honor books.

However, if you don't agree -- or have other titles to suggest, well then, just click on over to her blog and add your favorite in the comments.
-wendieO

Carnival of Children's Literature

The November Carnival of Children's Literature is up. Go check out Wendy Wax's blog and enjoy the links.
-wendieO

Nonfiction Monday -- Animals and Me

Animals and Me, We're more alike than you might think! by Marie Greenwood. DK Publishing, 2010. Available now.

This DK book is not only multi-cultural, it's multi-species!
Each double-page spread in this 48 page book concentrates on one aspect of life, comparing the way people (usually kids) do it to animals'.

Introduction -- We are all animals: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and Invertebrates. (hmmm. That last word will need some explaining to 1st graders.)
Ah, the two sentence paragraph under THIS word does explain it -- they don't have backbones and most are insects. (WARNING -- this book contains spiders!)

First, the page examines YOU, then goes on to examine other animals.
Shaping Up = skeletons. (bird/ cat/ fish/ outer shell of insects)
Cover up = your skin v. fur/ feathers/ tortoise shell.
Feet First = all sorts of feet.
and so on.

Readers will be fascinated with the many ways animals are the same and different from people.

More Nonfiction Monday reviews can be found at the Playing by the Book blog. Click away.
-wendieO

Which manuscript should I send?

I've had two manuscripts sitting in my Vermont College file, both ready to send as my workshop submission. But which one to send? Which one?
I couldn't decide.

I really want to work on one of them with a college advisor. But do I want to workshop it, too?
The other one was workshopped last March at the novel writing workshop, and has been revised since then.
Should I send that one to get fresh eyes on the revised version?

Decisions
Decisions

Well, I finally took the plunge and sent my dog story off to be added to the workshop booklet.
They said we'd get our group's workshop booklet two weeks before the semester begins. Which will probably be after Christmas.
I can't wait to see what the other writers submit.
-wendieO

Happy Turkey Day

Gotta get up and fix the turkey.
5 am?
-nope
6 am?
-nope
7 am?
-nope.
Alarm went off at 7:30.
Up at 7:40.

Eat pumpkin pie for breakfast.
Make the stuffing. (chop celery and onions/ cook in turkey fat and butter and water/ mix with stuffing mix and let set)
Clean the turkey.

Well, this was supposed to be a 10 - 12 pound fresh turkey, so I had bought a throw-away aluminum roasting pan supposedly large enough for a 15 pounder.
As usual, the fresh turkeys grew larger than planned and we ended up with a 14 pounder.
Still should fit, you say?
-Wrong.
The darn thing has the longest legs of any 14 pounder I've ever seen. Legs extend over the pan. Body fits snugly into the pan, leaving no room for turkey juices (for gravy) to gather.

Make trip to grocery store to buy larger pan.
Toss first pan.
Insert stuffed and buttered turkey into second pan.
Insert into oven.

And go back to sleep.

(I had wanted ham, but was overruled, again, by my family's pathetic cries of, "No Turkey? It's not Thanksgiving without Turkey!")

Now the family, plus my husband's brother, are sitting around the woodstove, waiting for the turkey to be done.
So,
how was YOUR Turkey day?
-wendieO

Nonfiction Monday -- A Walrus' World

Caroline Arnold's Animals -- A Walrus' World. Picture Window Books, a Capstone imprint, 2010. Available now.

I was digging through the box of books that Capstone had sent me, looking for a book to review when I found one by my favorite easy reader nonfiction author, Caroline Arnold. When my own children were just learning to read and wanted information about animals, I always knew that Caroline Arnold would have something to interest them.

This series, however, isn't the photographic illustrated book I normally expect from her. This time around, she is illustrating the books herself with cut paper, instead. Which means, of course, that the double page scenes seem to be up close and personal.
Because she uses lines of paint as well as the cut paper, the walruses seem very real. (and very wrinkled, like they should be)

As the book progresses, a baby walrus grows up. During the summer, he and his mother joins a herd of female walruses, but in the winter several thousand male and female walrus join forces for protection and warmth. This is told in story format with yellow rectangles sprinkled on the pages offering more factual information about the beasts.

The book is square -- 11 inches on each size -- and could cause a problem in a library with tight shelving. As it is, it's just barely going to fit in my library with the 12 inch spacing between shelves.
For first and second grade readers.
(preschoolers would enjoy it being read to them because of the nice large pictures.)

Other books in this series --
A Bald Eagle's World
A Moose's World
A Polar Bear's World
A Kangaroo's World
A Koala's World
A Platypus' World
A Wombat's World
A Killer Whale's World
A Panda's World
A Penguin's World
A Zebra's World

More Nonfiction Monday reviews can be found at Diane Chen's SLJ blog, Practically Paradise.
Enjoy -wendieO