Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell

Fin knows that something is wrong, she just doesn’t know what. She can’t stop counting. Some of the teachers at her new school think she just isn’t paying attention, but Fin knows that maybe she’s paying too much attention--to everything. Her dad wants to be buddies with his new girlfriend. Her mother wants her to go to counseling. Her counselor wants her to take Paxil, but her mother doesn’t want her to take meds at all. Fin feels like she’s all alone--until she begins a “conversation” with a tagger on the stall wall of one of the girls’ bathrooms. Maybe she’s not so alone after all, but will she ever be able to stop counting everything? Will she take the meds? Will she meet this tagger? Read Total Constant Order by Crissa-Jean Chappell and see.

Chappell does for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) what Jack Gantos and his character, Joey Pigza, do for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Neither Gantos nor Chappell presume to solve their characters’ problems, nor do they preach or sugar-coat. They do not push any particular treatments. What they do is to skillfully offer the reader a glimpse into the minds of young people as they learn that, maybe, they’re not crazy--and that they aren’t alone. Total Constant Order, scheduled for release on October 23, 2007, is a worthy addition to any young adult collection.

Launch Pad: A call for young authors and illustrators

I recently received word about an interesting opportunity for those young authors and illustrators out there. If you know of a young author or illustrator, consider looking into Launch Pad, a new publication for children's works set to debut in January/February of 2008. The following is the call for submissions along with URLs, snail mail, e-mail and phone information for the editor and publisher, Paul Kelsey. The call includes URLs for downloadable fliers. What a great way to encourage our dragonlings to get creative!!!

******************************************************************

Call for Submissions

Become a Published Young Author or Illustrator!

Launch Pad: Where Young Authors and Illustrators Take Off! is now accepting fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book reviews, and artwork by children ages 6-12. We encourage children to submit a few illustrations with their written work, but this is not a requirement. We are looking for creative works about the following themes:

Animals
The Ocean
Fairy Tales & Fantasy
Heroes
Mysteries
Sports

Launch Pad: Where Young Authors and Illustrators Take Off! is scheduled to debut with a January/February 2008 print issue. Please visit http://www.launchpadmag.com to review our submission guidelines!

Printable handouts:
http://www.launchpadmag.com/submitbw.pdf
http://www.launchpadmag.com/submitcolor.pdf

Email submissions and queries to: editor@launchpadmag.com

Or mail to:

Launch Pad
P.O. Box 80578
Baton Rouge, LA 70898

Dragons in Children's Literature

Well, in my previous post, I included a brief look at two picture books of dragons. Of course, this now begs the question: what are some others good books with dragons?

Off the top of my head, some of my favorites are:

The Dragon Machine (Ages 5+)
The Dragon Snatcher (Ages 4+)
Dragon Song, Dragon Singer, and Dragon Drums (aka Harper Hall series) by Anne McCaffrey (Ages 10+)
Ignis by Gina Wilson and P.J. Lynch (Ages 4+)
Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini (Ages 10+)
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke (Ages 9+)


What are some of YOUR favorite books--picture or chapter that include dragons.

I suspect this means that I will now start a list of favorite books with dragons. . . . The list now includes 9. Oh, that reminds me--the list of librarians in children's lit? It's up to 46 now. A far cry from 100--but still growing.

A few books with dragons. . . .

It's been far too long since I returned to the cave. However, I am happy to say I return to the cave with a new diploma to hang on the wall and a mortar board (slightly rumpled) and tassle (slightly singed) to go along with it. I will say that whoever designed the mortar board and tassel simply did not take dragon anatomy into consideration (though my human counterparts at graduation were not faring much better). Those mortar boards were wobbling to and fro and tassels were being spat out regularly whenever anyone turned their head and opened their mouth at the same time. At least I had the option, unintended though it might have been, to singe the dratted tassel--just one small snort of flame and poof--no more tassel to irritate the nostrils. Ahem. I digress.

What I actually wanted to make note of was a couple of "new" (to me at least) picture books featuring one of my favorite topics: dragons. Of course, looking at the dates on these, you'll realize that "new to me" doesn't necessarily correspond with currency of publication date, but that's neither here nor there--well, it's actually more a then not now. . . .

The Dragon Snatcher by M. P. Robertson. Published by The Penguin Group's Dial Books for Young Readers in 2005, this beautifully illustrated book features a young boy named George who, unlike at least one of his predecessors, is out to save dragons--not slay them. Hearing a noise in the chicken coop one night, George investigates to find a worried dragon who whisks him off to a cold, bleak castle. Inside the castle George finds shelf after shelf on neatly labeled dragon eggs--and overhears an old wizard whose plan is to "rid the land of these cursed creatures" once he finds just one more egg. Does George stop the wizard from stealing the last dragon egg? Can anything melt the wizards ice-cold heart? Read and see. (K-3rd grade)

The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward, illustrated by Wayne Anderson. Published by Dutton Children's books in 2003, this is a very different story about a boy who always went ignored and overlooked, just like the dragons he starts to notice. Dragons are everywhere, but noone ever seems to notice them, just like they never seem to notice George--until they start to become troublesome. Needing some advice, George goes to his local library, where he learns, much too late, that one should never feed the dragons or let them into our home. But the book also offers hope that these dragons might not end up captured--if only he can show them the way to their own home--the place where they belonged. And so, George builds the dragon machine. Part of the fun of this story is discovering the dragons along with George--at first glance, the unobservant reader might just miss seeing these heretofore unnoticed creatures. Are the dragons discovered and captured? Do the dragons follow George as he attempts to take them to the safety of their own home? Does George ever get noticed? Read this whimsically illustrated story and see. (K-4th grade)

May Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lyn Anderson

Meet 10-year-old May Bird, who lives with her mother and a hairless rex cat named Somber Kitty at the edge of a woods in a place called Briery Swamp. She spends much of her time with her cat in the woods, dreaming of being a warrior princess or in her room drawing pictures of strange creatures. She's not like the other kids in her class, who think she's just plain weird. May Bird's mother, concerned and coming to her wits' end with May's "strange" behavior, is talking about sending her away to a boarding school in New York. Even though May Bird has reason to be scared now that she's started seeing ghosts in the woods and in her home, she's more scared of leaving her beloved West Virginia woods. Things become stranger still when, in the ruins of an old post office, she finds a mysterious letter, postmarked from 50 years ago, but addressed to May Bird at her address. The letter leads her into a world that is even further away than New York where being different--being "a live one", might just be deadly for her--a world where the Bogeyman is real; where ghosts are afraid of "people like her." It is a complex story with many layers, some humorous (ghosts of thieves playing practical jokes on one another) and some frightening (ghosts having their souls sucked into nothingness by the evil Bo Cleevil). In this strange and frightening world, May learns that, just maybe, she isn't as alone as she thought she was, and she just might find that she's more of a warrior princess than she ever dreamt.


Some sources list this story as being at a reading level of Ages 9 and up, others at Grades 5 and up. Because of the complexity and possible fright factor for some, I would tend to agree with the latter. That said, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next as May Bird ventures through the land of the dead in an attempt to find answers, to find her way home, and to find herself. The series so far is:

• May Bird and the Ever After (Book 1)


• May Bird Among the Stars (Book 2)


• May Bird: Warrior Princess (Book 3)

Some of you have asked if there will be other books in this series. After reading Book 3, my thoughts are that there will not be any further books in the series--simply because the story was wrapped up very nicely. That said, you just never know. If I hear of any additions to the series, I'll be happy to add them to the list.

The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo

Many, many years ago, I read Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising. The series enthralled me, and I found myself anxiously waiting for each book in the series to come back in to our school library (the series was popular). So how is this relevant to Jenny Nimmo's The Magician Trilogy? Reading The Snow Spider put me in the same frame of mind that Cooper's series put me into so very many years ago, so much so, that I (1) can't wait to read the 2nd book in Nimmo's series and (2) am itching to re-read Cooper's series. Set in Wales, Nimmo's new series (she is author of the Charlie Bone books), introduces us to Gwyn and his family on the day of Gwyn's ninth birthday. Gwyn's grandmother gives him five very puzzling gifts--a piece of seaweed, a scarf, a whistle, a twisted brooch and a broken toy horse--and tells hiim that now is the time to find out if he, Gwyn, is a magician. Gwyn and his mother and father, still grieving from the mysterious disappearance of his sister Bethan almost five years previous, pretty well think that Gwyn's gran is nuts. But is she? Full of the richness of Welsh names The Snow Spider is an intriguing tale of darkness, mystery, and the light of hope. I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

Reading level as listed on Amazon.com: Ages 9-12

A few more fairy tale based chapter books. . .

After my previous post, I received notes from several folk at LM_Net reminding me about the Sisters Grimm Fairytale Detectives series by Micahel Buckley and Peter Ferguson. I have only read the first in the series, but thoroughly enjoyed it. In this series, you meet two young girls, Sabrina and Daphne, who are sent to live with their grandmother, Relda Grimm. The catch? They didn't know anything about this grandmother, they didn't know anything about their family history, and they certainly didn't expect to find out that fairytales might be more than just stories. Join them as they discover their Grimm family heritage, and meet the real characters behind the fairytales they only thought they knew.

The series so far includes:

The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-Tale Detectives
The Sisters Grimm: The Unusual Suspects
The Sisters Grimm: The Problem Child
The Sisters Grimm: Once Upon a Crime

Fairy Tales Revisited--Chapter Book Fairy Tales With a Twist

I've found myself recommending some of the same titles over and over again, both at the public library and in the school library. As this list grows longer, and my memory shorter, it's time to make another list. This one is a list of children's chapter books that are either based on/in a fairy tale or that take on additional levels of meaning if you are familiar with some of the traditional fairy tales. Without fail, each of the titles in this list has left me chuckling and wishing I had been the one to write that book or come up with that idea.

Patricia Wrede's Chronicles of the Enchanted Forest in which Princess Cimorene defies princessly tradition and goes in search of a dragon to serve and attempts to dissuade those pesky princes from attempts to rescue her--and manages to befriend a witch,melt a few wizards, foil a few dastardly plots, organize a dragon's cave and cook copious quanitites of Cherries Jubilee.

Dealing with Dragons
Searching for Dragons
Calling On Dragons
Talking to Dragons



Gail Carson Levine's standalone book

Ella Enchanted and her Princess Tales books in which she puts several new twists on many fairy tale conventions and archetypes

The Fairy's Mistake
The Princess Test
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep
Cinderellis and the Glass Hill
The Fairy's Return
For Biddle's Sake

Esme Raji Codell's Diary of a Fairy Godmother in which young witch-in-training, Hunky Dory, defies the convention of her classmates and the expectations of all those expecting her to go into the family business (witching) and considers other possible magical career options, much to her family's distress but our enjoyment.

Jean Ferris' Once Upon a Marigold in which you'll recognize many of the fairy tale elements--but with some fun twists--evil Queen mothers (not step-mothers), people with mysterious histories, lost children adopted by trolls, crazy inventors and, oh yes, quite a few horrible (but in a good way) jokes.

E.D. Baker's Tales of the Frog Princess in which rather un-princessly Princess Esmerelda manages to kiss a frog--and be turned into a frog herself, with great adventure, albeit frog-sized, and hilarious results.

The Frog Princess
Dragon's Breath
Once Upon a Curse
No Place for Magic

Books for Reluctant Readers: Subjects? Dragons, of course!

My dragonling has discovered adventure books and it's reminding me of the old Dungeons and Dragons role playing games of yore. The series? Knights of the Silver Dragon from Mirrorstone. The three main characters are Kellach (14-year-old wizard's apprentice), Driskoll (12-year-old younger brother), and Moyra (13-year-old thief). Their adventures begin in Secret of the Spirit Keeper by Matt Forbeck, with the apparent death of Kellach's elven master, the wizard Zendric. It's up to our three young adventurers to figure out what really happened to Zendric--and why. Along the way, they must break into prison, deal with zombies, goblins, half-orcs and, oh--try to stay within curfew. We haven't delved further into the series yet, but the dragonling is clamoring for the next in the series.

If you're curious, Knights has a website available at Knights of the Silver Dragon which includes a fun quiz and a map of the city of Curston, as well as links to other Mirrorstone series. Of particular interest to me (other than the fact that my son really enjoyed the first book and that there's some great dragon art) is that there is a link to Teacher and Librarian Resources, which includes teaching and discussion guides, activities and programming ideas. According to Mirrorstone: "We publish fantasy and series fictioin for kids, partly because research shows these are the kinds of books that appeal most to children who think they hate to read." I would be curious to see what some of you think about these books and any experiences you might have with this series and your own dragonlings.

Enjoy!

The Great Brain--revisited

If you have any doubt that reading aloud to your class can make a difference, let me please encourage you to continue to make time for that read-aloud. It's probably been at least 20 years since one of my elementary school techers read The Great Brain to me in class, and I not only remembered it, but chose to share it with my own son. I didn't realize until tonight, as we finished More Adventures of the Great Brain, that the first of these books was originally published in 1967. I probably first heard the stories in the mid 70s and now, here we are in 2006 and I find my son enjoying the stories every bit as much as I remember having enjoyed them back then. I have heard far too many claims of "instant classic" these days. In my humble opinion, a classic is something that brings as much pleasure 10 years, 20 years, 30 years--going on 40 years--after it was written, as it did when first published. I can say, with no qualms whatsoever, that The Great Brain series qualifies, hands down. If it's been a while since you've read them (or if you've never had the pleasure of reading them), the series includes 7 titles:

• The Great Brain
• More Adventures of the Great Brain
• Me and My Little Brain
• The Great Brain at the Academy
• The Great Brain Reforms
• The Return of the Great Brain
• The Great Brain Does it Again
• The Great Brain is Back

Thanks to one teacher's tenacity in reading aloud to my class, I was introduced to a series that meant something to me back then, and that now, means even more as I have shared it with my son. I knew we had a winner when, tonight, as we finished the last chapter, (after he finished smacking his forehead at J.D. having been swindled once again) he asked if there were more books in the series. I was happy to tell him "yes."

If you are reading aloud to your child or class, kudos to you. You may not realize how much of an impact you are having, or that you might have years from now--but that time shared in reading can make a difference that reaches well beyond the school years.

Librarians in Children's and YA Literature: A Bibliography in Progress

Having heard various ideas about the most useful format for a bibliography of this sort, I've opted to list the books by age, then title with author last. Recommended ages or interest ages are very often a subjective call and, as such, subject to interpretation depending on the individual reader/listener and the situation. Picture books can be wonderful additions to lesson for older kids and there are younger children who will sit spell-bound for a read aloud of an "older"chapter book. If you think of others librarians, great and/or infamous, please continue to add them to the list. I would love for us to get to 100--or more!

Ages 4+

Believing in Books: The Story of Lillian Smith by Sydell Waxman
Beverly Billingsly Can't Catch by Alexander Stadler
Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss
Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian by Jessica Spanyol (Mrs. Chinca)
Eratosthenes from The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky
I Took My Frog to the Library by Eric A. Kimmel
The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer (Mrs. Murphy)
The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter
The Library by Sarah Stewart (Elizabeth Brown)
Library Lil by Suzanne Williams
Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen (Miss Merriweather)
Mr. Wiggle Loves to Read by Carol L. Thompson
Mr. Wiggle's Library by Carol L. Thompson
Red Light, Green Light, Mama and Me by Cari Best
Stella Louella's Runaway Book
Wild About Books by Judy Sierra (Molly McGrew)

Ages 5+

Aunt Lulu by Daniel Pinkwater (Miss Lulu)
Cannon the Librarian by Mike Thaler (Miss Cannon)
The Librarian from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler
Librarian's Night Before Christmas by David Davis
The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy
The Shelf Elf Series by Jackie Hopkins
Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora (“the Library Lady”)
What Happened to Marion's Book by Brook Berg & Nathan Alberg

Ages 7+

Fire Up With Reading: A Mrs. Skorupski Story by Suzanne Williams (Due out from Upstart in 2007)
Our Librarian Won't Tell Us ANYTHING! A Mrs. Skorupski Story by Toni Buzzeo (Due out from Upstart in October 2006



Ages 9+

All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor & Helen John (“the Library Lady”)
Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio by Tony Johnston (Ms. Cloud)
Baby by Patricia MacLachlan (Miss Minifred sp?)
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Miss Frannie)
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt & Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer (the outreach librarians)
Harry Potter (the series) by J.K. Rowling (Madame Pince)
Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck (the four library students)
Lily Quench (the series) by Natalie Jane Prior
Matilda by Roald Dahl (Miss Phelps)
My Side of the Mountain by John Craighead George (Miss Turner)
Richard Wright and the Library Card by William Miller
Seven Day Magic by Edgar Eager

Ages 10+

The Loud Silence of Francine Green by Karen Cushman (Sister Pete)
Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

Ages 13+

Can't Get There from Here by Todd Strasser

Ages 15+

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti (Ann)
Wide Awake by David Livithan (Miss Kaye)

A Cow, A Bee, A Cookie, and Me (reissued as Honey Cookies) by Meredith Hooper

Ask a kid "where does our food come from" and you might be surprised at the answers. All too often, the answer might be "Walmart." In our area, those who have their own gardens are few and far between. Many kids have never experienced the wonder of potatoes dug straight from the rich soil or tomatoes picked from the vine, tree branches hanging laden with apples ripe for the picking, the joy of discovering the perfect pumpkin hidden amongst thick vines. This disconnect with where our food comes from will probably only become greater as our nation's population becomes increasingly urban, removed from the elements as more than anything but an inconvenience or curiosity.

If you are looking for a good story to use to introduce your kids "back to nature", take a look at Meredith Hooper's A Cow, a Bee, a Cookie, and Me, illustarted by Alison Bartlett, published by Kingfisher in 1997. The story begins. . .

"Ben was cooking with his grandma. 'What should we make?' asked Ben. 'Honey cookies,' said Grandma. 'What do we need?' asked Ben. 'We need. . .' said Grandma,'a cow in a field eating fresh green grass, munch, dribble, munch, all day long.'

The story moves on with Ben's grandma surprising Ben (and the reader) at every turn with what they need for their cookies: sugarcane, "dried bark from a faraway tree," a "thousand buzzing bees"--culminating in a recipe for these mouthwatering honey cookies. After sharing this book, you may find that your students never look at a recipe in quite the same way--I know that I certainly don't.

This story lends itself wonderfully to feltboard storytelling, storytelling with props (a big bowl into which you drop the toy chicken, the toy cow-you get the idea), and to sharing a tasty treat with your group.

After sharing this book, you may find that your students never look at their food or a recipe in quite the same way--I know that I certainly don't.


NOTE: This title has been reissued as Honey Cookies.

Meet Gilda Joyce

Meet Gilda Joyce. She’s your average 13-year old girl, that is, if you don’t count her leopard skin jacket, wig collection, and stiletto heels. She’s doing ok since her dad died of cancer a few years ago. She types letters to him on his old typewriter. What does she tell him about? Oh, just the usual stuff--school, what annoying things her brother has done lately, how her mother’s doing, the status of her latest psychic investigations…. Oh, did I mention that Gilda Joyce is a psychic detective? If you’d like to get to know Gilda a little better, and maybe learn to recognize her if you happen to see her in disguise, read Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator and Gilda Joyce: The Ladies of the Lake, by Jennifer Allison. I happily predict many more crazy adventures in Gilda’s future.

Call for Opinions--What's the Most Useful Way to Organize these Growing Lists?

Wow! Our list of librarians (infamous and/or great) in literature is growing by leaps and bounds. The list of books that might work well for introducing kids to the library, to library etiquette, book handling and other like topics is also growing--just not quite as quickly. Both are growing quickly enough that I'm finding it difficult to find particular titles. What I'm wondering is: what do you think is the best way to organize lists like this? I've thought about arranging it by recommended age levels, then by author, then title (or title THEN author), but thought it better to just ask. I don't always agree with recommended ages for these books, but I figure that it's a starting point at least. At any rate, your ideas on this will be most appreciated.

Meanwhile, happy reading!!!

LITA National Forum--Take a look at their schedule

First held in 1998, the LITA National Forum has become a highly regarded annual event for those whose work involves new and leading edge technologies in the library and information technology field. For more information and to see a detailed schedule of forums (including ones on wikis, blogs, preservation and much, much more) go to:

http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litaevents/litanationalforum2006nashvilletn/2006forum.htm


2006 LITA National Forum

October 26–29, 2006

Downtown Sheraton Hotel
Nashville, Tennessee

NetVille in Nashville: Web Services As Library Services

Early registration has been extended through September 1, 2006

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) is pleased to offer the 2006 National Forum

The 2006 LITA National Forum, held October 26–29, 2006 at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel, in the heart of Nashville, provides a wealth of opportunities for growth and development. In addition to keynote sessions, there are 33 concurrent sessions and 11 poster sessions planned where you're sure to find practical advice, new ideas, and tested solutions to technological issues you encounter every day.

View the complete Forum schedule and session descriptions
Two full day pre-conferences provide opportunities for hand-on experiences and in-depth discussions
Keynote sessions enrich each day's programming
Register now and save $50—early registration has been extended through September 1, 2006
Reserve your housing at a discounted rate of $109 per night at the Forum website
Hope to see you in Nashville!