BON APPETIT!: THE DELICIOUS LIFE OF JULIA CHILD (NONFICTION)

NONFICTION

BON APPETIT!: THE DELICIOUS LIFE OF JULIA CHILD by Jessie Hartland (Schwartz & Wade)

When I first opened this book, I thought, "Dommage! Ca, ce n'est pas bon pour à haute voix," which, if my hackneyed recollection of high school French is correct, probably means "dang it, this isn't good for reading aloud." The handwritten pages are splayed with text veering from handwritten cursive to print, information boxed off helter-skelter and doodle-y artwork plopped down at will with text squeezed in around it.  If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was looking over my notes from one of our teacher's meetings.   Yes, I am aware that crazy, swirly lettering that makes a flipping concrete poem out of three-fourths of everything is trés trés chic (oh, thanks a million, Lauren Child), but librarians everywhere already have a hard enough time reading sideways, without creative people deviating from the road map of conventional page layouts and fonts, thanks anyway.

But.

But if it is not initially a great read-aloud, it is a superior read a-quiet.  Pages packed to distraction with lively art and action are as hard to stop consuming as the buttery sole menuiere served in Rouen to Julia Child, revealed in the book as a transformative meal on the road to sharing her love of the cuisine through cookbooks and television. Three things about this book are especially delicious: 1) not only does this book document well the hard work and serendipity that made Julia Child a culinary icon, it captures a freewheeling, spontaneous and joyful effervescence that is hard not to trust as a good reflection of the book's subject and 2) it also really shows, apart from being a gourmande extraordinaire, what an amazing world traveler and adventurer Julia Child was, especially for the time in which she lived.  The bottom of the pages serving as a sort of passport for readers to check the geography of Julia's latest chapter. Most of all, 3), this book takes a subject and a story, full of editors and travel and falling in love and a double-page play-by-play of the creation of a galantine in aspic, which might be a bit sophisticated (sluggish?) for the picture-book palate, mais non, Hartland deftly seasons it to age-appropriate taste. Fans of Maira Kalman's boxy, folksy, stylized art and Marjorie Priceman's propensity for twirly-whirlies will find Ms. Hartland's style trés charmant, and being among those fans, I concur. I loved Julia's affection for cats told wordlessly in the illustrations, the coquettish backward-facing eyeballing between Julia and her husband/beau, and most of all, Julia Child's quote: "Don't apologize for your cooking mistakes.  It is what it is."  That page alone, and certainly that lesson, is worth twice the price of the book. 

I was wrong to wrinkle my nose at what I initially saw being served. If you release expectations of a conventional picture book read-aloud biography and approach it more as a graphic novel, all cupboards will open for you.  And while reading to one's self is probably the preferred mode here, don't abandon all hope of group sharing; just as Julia Child had to make recipes over and over to discover the very best way to do her art, it may take a little practice to get the lay of the pages' landscapes and achieve a signature perfection at storytime.  Worth any extra effort by readers, this book is an inspiring homage to more than a master chef, but a master at being alive.  Both children and adults alike will undoubtedly come away with some dreamy aspiration:  "hey, I would like to throw a party...I would like to travel...I would like to be a spy...I would like to write a book..."  Just remember, Julia did it all.  Thanks for the reminder, Jessie Hartland.  Bibliographies, links and leads comprise backmatter/dessert.  Yum. 

Also of interest:
MINETTE'S FEAST: THE DELICIOUS STORY OF JULIA CHILD AND HER CAT by Susanna Reich, illustrated by Amy Bates (Abrams).


Links are provided for informational use.  Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

THE OBSTINATE PEN (PICTURE BOOK)

PICTURE BOOK
Book du Jour:
THE OBSTINATE PEN by Frank W. Dormer (Henry Holt)

As the heart wants what it wants, the pen writes what it writes, and it isn't always very nice. It tells a traffic cop to give the perpetrator a smooch, or be a yam-headed organ grinder. It points out an aspiring author's big nose, and an heiress' warts. It is not until the pen is found by a different kind of artist that it manifests a different kind of voice. In a few choice words and simple pictures, this seriously funny book speaks very honest volumes about the artistic process, or at least what happens to a dream deferred, you yam-headed organ grinders. OOopsy! Already a fan of this author's debut, SOCKSQUATCH, this latest is equally stellar for storytime; read it and laugh. Also good for teaching little kids the word "obstinate."  High-reaching vocabulary aficionados William Steig and Fancy Nancy would be proud.  (6 and up)

Also of interest:

The obstinate pen's cousin,
THE PENCIL by Allen Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman (Candlewick).

Speaking of obstinate pens and accommodating pencils, thank you for your patience as I temporarily fell off posting on my own Planet this year, working full-time (ha ha!  That's putting it lightly!) as a Chicago Public School teacher/school librarian, and finishing my master's degree in Library and Information Science from UIUC.  As my dear friend Diane put it, "now you're not a common law librarian, you finally got that piece of paper everyone cares so much about."  Perhaps I should write a children's book, The Elusive Paper.  Perhaps not.  Probably not.  Not. But I will try at least to tap The Overtired Keyboard more often, and catch up with some Books du Jour; descriptions may be brief, but at least you'll have a few lovely new read-aloud leads.  Yours truly.

Links are provided for informational use.  Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

It's time for IT'S TIME FOR PRESCHOOL

Happy book birthday to you,
happy book birthday to you.
Happy book birthday, IT'S TIME FOR PREEEEE-SCHOOOOOOL,
happy book birthday to you!

I am so pleased and delighted to share with you my latest picture book, IT'S TIME FOR PRESCHOOL, illustrated by Sue Rama (Greenwillow). If you browse the pages, you'll see what truly genius job Sue Rama did in bringing the sort of colorful supersaturation of new experience to the pages.  My hope above all was that the artwork would look "juicy," with the kind of expressive abandon that might be splayed on a tempera-covered easel...I had hoped that anyone looking at the art might be able to practically smell the wood chips in the guinea pig's cage. I also hoped the pictures would allow every child who read our book to visually identify with the preschool scene, and feel like they would be a welcomed part of it. Kind of a tall order.  Rama nailed it. 

It's called It's Time for Preschool because it is, in fact, structurally very focused on the idea of time, which is so novel and fundamental to newbies on the planet.  One of the great accomplishments of any preschooler, I think, is adjusting many new transitions that have to be made within the structure of school, and becoming cognizant of and learning to trust the idea of time passing, as children look forward to "what comes next," activities and time with friends, the special delights of each season, and being apart from people they love for a while before reconvening at the end of the day.  I think my favorite spread in the book is for "circle time," which Rama cunningly arranged almost like a wheel...around and around it all goes, the seasons as well as the turns we take between each other, listening and talking.

In writing this book, I tried to keep a conversational tone, so that the child feels they are being taken by the hand by a new best friend, a young and more experienced guide eager to share all the parts of this magical new land to which they have been led.  I tried to listen to and capture the inherent musicality of the early childhood classroom in creating the text:  the cadence runs from the joyful staccato shouts of the playground to the internal rhyming hum of a class running well at all the learning stations, to the out-and-out sing-song of the teacher, leading us from one part of the day to the next.  I tried to encourage reassurances that I know to be important to small children, such as that someone will always come and pick them up, and that they will know where the potty will be located if they need to use it, and what to do when the day departs from routine, whether because of a field trip or a fire drill.

It's Time for Preschool is a longer book.  I knew it would be, going in, because my editor specifically asked me to create something that would walk, not run, though child's day, giving enough detail to truly prepare, excite, and relieve its audience.  Even though I knew that might take a little more text than might be customary for an early childhood book, I didn't sweat it because I kept thinking of the great Rosemary Wells' EMILY'S FIRST 100 DAYS OF SCHOOL, which is mammoth at two pounds, sixty-four pages, and really pretty hard to even "do" in a single sitting. But it is comprehensive, and I remembered how when my own son was little, it was nice to have a book that covered all the bases.  Further, I felt like Wells says and says and says what she wants to say about this little bunny-person's experience, until it's all been fully said.   There's something really whole about that, an uninterrupted sharing between author and readers, a case in which "more is more"rings truer than the skimpier "less is more" credo.  Another person whom I think was very good at measuring how long to take to say things to children based on what he had to say and not on any grown-up marketing or formula was Fred Rogers, one of my heroes and one of the people to whom the book is dedicated (the other being Josie Carey).  So I didn't worry about the book being long, I worried about it being whole, and really written for it's intended audience.  And I think it is.

I created this book with the benefit of my experiences as both a teacher and a parent with a child who used to be very little (though goodness knows, when I look at him, he is always that little boy...much to his now-teenage chagrin).   I am an elementary educator, and from that perspective, preschool for a long time seemed like a developmental period that goes by so fast and happens so early, the "little ones" might forget what we teach them.  Now, after a little more exposure and training, I realize that early childhood is indeed ultimately forgettable, just the same way that all day long, we might forget that there is blood flowing through our bodies.  Our experiences in early childhood are just like the blood in our veins:  we carry it with us all the time, and it drives what we do and who we are, and definitely how we approach others and how capable we are of seeing ourselves as a part of a wider world.  I have to say a few words of thanks to a few grown-up friends who taught me what I know about the younger end of the teaching spectrum and informed my approach to this book: Isabel Baker, an expert in children's literature for the very young, and independent bookseller through The Book Vine, and the patient and exemplary models at School for Little Children, who taught my son, and later, Baker Demonstration School, both in Evanston, Illinois.

Since I worked at Baker for a while and it was my first hands-on experience in early education, I was mentored and scaffolded there by several great teachers, and one of them, Carolyn Tripp (since retired), became a particular inspiration.  I still have dreams about Carolyn's beautiful classroom, full of live animals, including a gentle tarantula named Sarah and a huge tortoise that used to follow the children out to the playground and dig in the sand with them.  If you wanted to find Ms. Tripp, you would have to duck your head under the clotheslines of drying art and past the tots in aprons at the water table, and squint for a moment to distinguish her from the children; she was always at eye level with them, sitting at a table on a low, low chair, dusting glue with glitter or mashing clay or counting raisins on cookies alongside them, a leader but also a partner in their joys and discoveries. I was so excited when I saw Sue Rama's illustrations, and they matched the jubilant, invitational spirit of Carolyn's classroom, and the classrooms of so many dedicated teachers.

You can find helpful hints for teachers created by Carolyn on the back of the It's Time for Preschool poster likely available at the Greenwillow booth at NAEYC, and the book itself contains hints for parents with children entering preschool, written by me.  I hope these are helpful, and that the book will be an occasion to have a leisurely conversation with someone small about their questions and experiences surrounding school, or used by teachers as a welcoming tool.  It's time for reading! 

Links are provided for informational use.  Don't forget to support your local bookseller. More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

NEWBERY AND CALDECOTT PREDICTIONS!

Hello, friends! Catching up a bit as I am still finding a balance between blogging, mom-ming, grad school, cake-frosting and being a full-time public school teacher librarian, but I haven't forgotten our fun and am busy compiling a list of this year's best.  Meanwhile, I can't resist sharing my picks for the 2011 American Library Association's Newbery and Caldecott Awards, the "Oscars" of the children's book world, to be announced tomorrow morning. Here's where I am laying my bets:

WITH A NAME LIKE LOVE by first-time author Tess Hilmo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).  how exciting it would be for a mystery to win, a well-done sample of the genre that children will enjoy, but at the same time, fitting into the quirky, small-town, girl-centric character-driven mold that spelled success for past winners like Susan Patron's THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY and Kate DiCamillo's beloved BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE.

The muy populare THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING by Catherynne Valente, illustrated by Ana Juan (Feiwel and Friends), an imaginative quest bringing together the classic flavor and imaginative casting found in The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice and The Wizard of Oz, but with a modern sensibility and erudite sauciness that might tickle the fancy of a team of librarians.

But girls, girls, girls.  How about giving another gender some play, namely,

MY NAME IS NOT EASY by Debby Dahl Edwardson (Masrhall Cavendish). Inspired by her husband's childhood, this is a stirring narrative of an Iñupiaq boy discriminated against at boarding school, told with the prowess, drama, and emotional insight that hearkens back to Louis Sachar's HOLES and situations described in the mighty autobiography by Ednah New Rider Weber, RATTLESNAKE MESA. What a great opportunity it would be for classrooms to discuss Native America in a civil rights context, and to discover a chapter of history all too recent and all too unknown. Whether it wins or not, we should be adding it to our collections and our conversations.

A number of books that have been getting a lot of buzz, and garnered a following through the year. Brian Selznick has been a deserving golden boy of children's books, enjoying recent popular success with his INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, and fast on its heels was this year's equally formidable WONDERSTRUCK,  about a deaf girl's perceptions of the end of the silent film era. Selznick's thematic love of the movies and reinvention of the book form continues! Other hotties are Franny Billingsley's high fantasy CHIME,  which will likely at least take a Printz award for Young Adult Fiction; Gary D. Schmidt who often creates intermediate/young adult hybrid books has won many silver medals for his work (LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY THE WEDNESDAY WARS) but may yet take the gold for OKAY FOR NOW; and Colin Meloy's WILDWOOD,
another nod to classic fantasy as Portland, Oregon serves as a portal to the netherworld of The Impassable Wilderness, and is a beautiful tome to hold and to read.

I have fingers and toes crossed for one of my favorites of the year, the beautifully written and poignant prose-poem about a girl who journeys from Saigon during the Vietnam War to Birmingham, Alabama,  INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN by Thanhha La (HarperCollins) (which already has received a National Book Award nod).  I always hope that some poetry or nonfiction takes the Newbery (how about this year's WON TON, by Lee Wardlaw; I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love it or like it a lot); departures from fiction doesn't always happen with the Newbery, but it's always interesting when it does (and there's always the Sibert Award for outstanding nonfiction, and one of my favorite prizes). 

As for the Caldecott Award, my personal favorite as far as jaw-dropping-gorgeousness was BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON: ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI'S CANTICLE OF THE ANIMALS (Chronicle) reimagined by Katherine Paterson and brought to life in the paper-cut illustrations of Pamela Dalton, an artistic feat which seems almost super-human, the meticulous-labor-of-love likes of which I have not seen since Robert Sabuda's WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (a pop-up book which should have gotten a Caldecott but was probably considered a novelty). Hopefully Dalton's unusual efforts will not be overlooked.

But then, there are a lot of picture book veterans pulling out the big guns:   Marla Frazee's STARS is a favorite to win, being that she is a bit overdue for a Caldecott, as is Arthur Geisert (ICE) though I'm sure all the artists sweat (albeit admiringly) when the masterful Chris Van Allsburg QUEEN OF THE FALLS) or Maurice Sendak (BUMBLE-ARDY) have new offerings. Then again, Jon Klassen's I WANT MY HAT BACK has a lot of fans, though its rather abrupt naturalistic finish lines might leave it a cult favorite. In a year of stand-outs, I have a suspicion this year's winner could be a sleeper, and I can't wait to wake up and find out whose dream came true.

Certainment, two of the very best illustrated books of 2011 were FAIRLY FAIRY TALES illustrated by Elisa Chavarri, a stylish and eye-popping work which sadly came out too early in 2011 to be properly remembered when awards rolled around, and Jennifer Plecas's slam-dunk in THE BASKET BALL, probably too pink to take the gold, but still a picture party that I know many little girls will be so happy to attend. Luckily we're all such good sports!  A special thank you to these illustrators who made this past year extra special for me, and congratulations to all the authors and illustrators who had works published this year.  Medals or not, we win every time a child opens a book!  Happy reading!

Links are provided for informational use. Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

TIME FOR A HUG (PICTURE BOOK)

Book du Jour:
 
TIME FOR A HUG by Phyllis Gershator and Mim Green, illustrated by David Walker (Sterling)

Wash our faces,
comb our hair,
choose the clothes
we like to wear.
Eat from a bowl,
drink from a mug--
What time is it?
Time for a hug!  

Tick tock, hours on a clock click off tidily in verse, taking us through the joys of a preschooler's everyday life (as well as the first ten digits).  A tender addition to any baby shower book basket!

Links are provided for informational use.  Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

THE HAUNTED HAMBURGER (PICTURE BOOK)

Book du Jour:

THE HAUNTED HAMBURGER AND OTHER GHOSTLY STORIES by David LaRochelle, illustrations by Paul Meisel (Dutton)

Seriously.  Do I need to tell you why you need to add a book called THE HAUNTED HAMBURGER to your children's collection?!  For practicing pedagogues, you'll find it will become one of your seasonal go-to's, featuring three vignettes: "The Scary Baby," "The Haunted Hamburger" and "The Big Bad Granny," all told as bedtime stories to frighten a little ghost. The stories conjure up way more laughs than shivers (especially when one poor ghost is fated to become a diaper!  Augghhhh!) and are well-complimented by colorful and cartoonish illustrations.  Most dependable primary pick for Halloween week as IN A DARK, DARK ROOM AND OTHER SCARY STORIES by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Dirk Zimmer (and that's saying a lot).

Links are provided for informational use. Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

LOVE TWELVE MILES LONG (PICTURE BOOK)

Book du Jour:

LOVE TWELVE MILES LONG by Glenda Armand, illustrated by Colin Bootman (Lee & Low)

Inspired by the life of the great orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a mother separated from her son by slavery visits him, recounting every mile of the journey (first mile for forgetting, fourth mile for looking up, sixth mile for praying, seventh for singing), and giving her son the steps toward his own freedom.  A stirring and hopeful read-aloud, this is a must-have for Black history, history of the American Civil War, the Antebellum South and slavery, and also for great moments in Mom history. 

For story or study, pair with Anne Rockwell's ONLY PASSING THROUGH (R. Gregory Christie, illustrator), Tonya Cherie Hegamin's MOST LOVED IN ALL THE WORLD (illustrated by Cozbi Cabrera) and MAMA SAYS: A BOOK OF LOVE FOR MOTHERS AND SONS by Rob Walker, illustrated regally by Leo and Diane Dillon. (8 and up)

Links are provided for informational use. Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.

WITCHES! (NONFICTION)

Book du Jour:

WITCHES! THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE TALE OF DISASTER IN SALEM by Rosalyn Schanzer (National Geographic)

Ask:  does your child know about the Salem Witch Trials?  How about you?!  Then you need this little chapbook, so chillingly adorned with black, white and red scratchboard illustrations and teeming with the primary sources and historical regret that the subject deserves.  You also need WITCH HUNT: MYSTERIES OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS by Marc Aronson, which does a good job of exploring the role of peer pressure in the trials, making it very relevant to tweenagers, and Milton Meltzer's WITCHES AND WITCH HUNTS: A HISTORY OF PERSECUTION, written by a master of non-fiction and putting witch-hunts and their head devils in a historical and modern context (including Hitler and McCarthy). Of course, my favorite nonfiction about witches is contained in WITCHES by Erica Jong, which is full of many dirty and beautiful and disturbing illustrations and writing. I don't think is for children, although I received it on request when I was thirteen, and it is worth noting that I still did enjoy it very much.

And if your older, fiction-loving familiar has somehow wearied of  Elizabeth George Speare's Newbery-winning Salem standby THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND, try Celia Rees's WITCH CHILD for kids needing a more contemporary, and possibly independently accessible approach to the topic. (All for readers 11 and up, except for Erica Jong.)

Happy Banned Books Week.


Links are provided for informational use. Don't forget to support your local bookseller.
More Esmé stuff at www.planetesme.com.