Cybils: Final Thoughts

The Cybils Awards were announced yesterday. I’ve been following along and was able to read all but one of the fiction picture book and non-fiction picture book finalists. I was happy with the fiction picture book winner, A Home for Bird. Happy because it’s a good book and happy for my friend Amy who nominated it. A Home for Bird was a book that grew on me. The first time we read it I thought it was ok but when I checked it out a second time I more charmed by it and I was impressed by how excited David and Ruth were to read it again. This was definitely a book with a lot of kid appeal in our house, which is fitting as the Cybils are supposed to be about kid appeal as well as literary merit.

The non-fiction picture book winner was Mrs. Harkness and the Panda which was definitely not my favorite of the finalists. Still, I can’t argue too much with anything illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Of the other categories, the only other winner I had read was Wonder, which I wasn’t surprised to see win. John recently read the Middle Grade Science Fiction winner, The False Prince and LOVED it so I’ll count that as one kid who agrees with the committee. In fact, he is anxiously awaiting the publication of the second book in the series on March 1st.

I think the thing I learned this year from following the Cybils is basically the same as last year: there are a lot of really excellent children’s books out there. I’m putting several of the finalists on my own TBR list.

 

Armchair Cybils Wrap-Up

As you know, I’ve been playing along with Amy and the Armchair Cybils challenge. It’s been really fun for me, even if I didn’t do such a great job of predicting the finalists. Below are links to my reviews on the finalists and some brief thoughts.

Fiction Picture Book Finalists

Black Dog by Levi Pinfold
I was finally able to read this charmingly quirky book and I really liked it. An enormous black dog is seen outside the Hope family house. (It’s the size of a tiger. Or maybe an elephant. Or is that a T. Rex?) One by one the family runs and hides but it takes the smallest Hope to figure out what to do. 

Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett
I found this one clever but a little lacking in heart. However, I will admit that when I brought it home again this time David saw it, remembered it, said how much he loved it and fought with his sister over it. I asked him why he liked it so much and he said it was really funny and he liked it when the “author guy and the other guy fought”. 

Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

A Home for Bird by Phillip Stead

Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford
This is the one on the list I was unable to get my hands on, it looks intriguing though so I’m hoping our library gets a copy soon.

One Special Day by Lola Schaefer

My Pick:
My top three are A Home for Bird, One Special Day or Black Dog. I’d be happy if any of those won. If I had to choose just one I think I’d go with One Special Day, because it manages to be excellent and feel fresh but at the same time be somewhat old-fashioned and sweet. I feel like those are qualities lacking in a lot of picture books today.

Non-Fiction Picture Book Finalists:

Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet
I never reviewed this one, I think because by the time we read it I’d seen it reviewed many places already. If you haven’t read it, go out and get a copy. It’s one of those great non-fiction books that takes a subject that is familiar and makes you wonder “why didn’t I know that”. I love the story of Tony Sarg, puppeteer and parade mastermind and I love Melissa Sweet’s illustrations. 

Dolphin Baby by Nicola Davies

Eggs 1, 2, 3: Who Will the Babies Be? by Janet Halfmann
This is the one book in this category I haven’t been able to get my hands on yet. It looks really good though so I’m still planning to read it. 

Island: A Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin

Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman

Mrs. Harkness and the Panda by Alicia Potter

Nic Bishop Snakes by Nic Bishop

My Pick:
Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet, mostly because I love that it’s about such a unique topic. It’s also an exceptionally well done book from a fantastic author-illustrator. A close second for me would be Island: The Story of the Galapagos by Jason Chin.

Those are my picks, how about you? Have you read any of the Cybils finalists? What were your favorites?

Read Aloud Thursday: Some Cybils Finalists (and I eat some crow).

So, I was a little surprised this year by the Cybils finalists. However, I wanted to keep playing along with the Armchair Cybils so I checked out the finalists in the fiction picture book and non-fiction picture book categories to see what I’d missed the first time around.

I had seen Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds on the new book shelf many times but had pased it by each time. I’m not sure why. I think I thought it was a Halloween book. I’m not anti-Halloween but it’s not my favorite holiday and I especially didn’t feel like reading a Halloween book out of season. I was wrong. It’s not a Halloween book. It is a very funny book. Jasper Rabbit is a gluttonous little bunny that loves to gobble down carrots. One day he begins to see carrots everywhere. Creepy carrots following him around. I love that it’s a mystery whether or not the carrots are really following him until the end. I also liked Peter Brown’s illustrations with a mostly black and white color palette with the only color being the orange of the carrots (or the objects that just might be carrots). It’s definitely a funny and clever book and has a lot of kid appeal. Only warning is that you might never get your kids to eat their veggies again.

The subtitle of One Special Day by Lola Schaefer, “A Book for Big Brothers and Sisters”, is a bit misleading. It is a book about becoming a big brother and would make a great book to read to a young child about to have a new sibling. However, I often find that I avoid those issue books unless I am specifically looking for one for that issue. I find that most of the time books on being a big brother or potty-training or the first day of school aren’t really well-done enough to hold the interest of kids not at that particular stage of life. This book is an exception. It is a really beautiful and appealing book that happens to also be a good book about becoming a new sibling. The text is simple as it introduces us to Spencer and all his different characteristics. He’s as strong as a bear and as fast as a horse and as muddy as a pig. The animals are never named in the text but are shown in bright paintings by Jessica Meserve. Ruth loved shouting out the names of each animal as I read the text “Spencer was wild as a….TIGER”. At the end of the book we see another side of Spencer as on one special day he is quiet, and waiting and gentle. I think I especially liked this book because it so beautifully captures the personality of a little boy much like my own two boys: wild and fierce and funny and loud but then also gentle and loving with their own baby sister. Ruth also really liked looking at the bonus illustrations on the end pages (the front ones are of Spencer alone doing all sorts of fun things, the end ones are of Spencer doing different but also fun things with his baby sister).

We read A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead sometime last summer. I liked it well enough but I don’t remember any of the kids finding it all that special.  However, when I brought it home from the library this time David immediately saw the cover and said “Oh, goody! That funny bird book!” Ruth has also requested multiple readings and today told me “I like this one. The frog is funny.” So, there you go. Shows how much I know. This quirky but sweet story of an odd friendship has also grown on me. On this reading I noticed more details in the illustrations that made me more appreciative of the story of Vernon (the funny frog) and the silent Cuckoo bird’s journey to find a home.

Come back next week on Jan 15th for a final look at this year’s Cybils finalists.

Today, stop by Hope is the Word for Read Aloud Thursday, always a fantastic source for great books to share with kids.

December Armchair Cybils

We are continuing to enjoy lots of great new juvenile fiction along with the Armchair Cybils challenge at Hope is the Word. First up, brief reviews of four Cybils fiction picture book nominees that we have recently read.

Frog fell into a deep hole. ”Frog fell into such a deep hole, he couldn’t get out to save his soul.” Mouse tries to help but falls in too. Then  Loris and Sun Bear and Monkey. Oh, No! And hungry tiger is coming to help. Oh, No! is one of those irresistible read-aloud books where all the pieces come together beautifully. Infectious rhyme punctuated with onomatopoeiac animal sounds and gorgeous illustrations by Caldecott Winner Eric Rohmann. We all loved it on multiple readings.

Henry Alfred Grummorson is the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of King Arthur. On his sixth birthday he wakes up, mounts his trusty donkey and heads out in search of adventure. He finds a little bit of adventure and a lot of new friends. King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson is a good solid book that gave us all a chuckle.

 

This Is Not My Hat is the sort of sequel to Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back, one of the picture book sensations of 2011. I wasn’t a huge fan of I Want My Hat Back although I did see that it was clever and original. I’ve seen some reviews that view This Is Not My Hat as the clever flip side to the story from the hat thief’s perspective. Maybe I’m just not the right audience for Klassen but this one also left me cold and it didn’t even have the benefit of at least being original.

Red Knit Cap Girl is a sweet simple book for young preschoolers. Red Knit Cap Girl wishes more than anything to find her friend the moon so she can talk to her. She sets out with her animal friends on a quest to figure out a way to get close enough to the moon. The wood-cut illustrations are lovely and make a nice accompaniment to the story. The only thing that bugged me about this book was that the girl’s only name is Red Knit Cap Girl and that it is repeated over and over again. I found that awkward and a little distracting from the story.

Other books we have enjoyed since last month’s round-up:

Fiction Picture Books
Chopsticks by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic by Ginnie Lo
All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Tafuri
Gem by Holly Hobbie
Bear Has a Story to Tell by Phillip C. Stead
Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson
Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! by Wynton Marsalis
Think Big by Liz Garton Scanlon
Cat Tale by Michael Hall
Wumbers by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Non-Fiction Picture Books 
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Timeless Thomas by Gene Baretta
Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child by Jessie Hartland
Minette’s Feast by Susannah Reich

Fantasy and Science Fiction Middle-Grade
Horten’s Incredible Illusions by Lissa Evans
What Came from the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt

In addition here are links to my Armchair Cybils Round-Ups in October and November.

The Cybils shortlists come out Jan 1st. Just for fun, here are my personal shortlists:

Fiction Picture Books:
Magritte’s Marvelous Hat by D. B. Johnson
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems
Because Amelia Smiled by David Ezra Stein
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
More by I. C. Springman
Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always by Tao Nyeu
Oh, No! by Candace Fleming
Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! by Wynton Marsalis

Non-Fiction Picture Books
Brothers at Bat by Audrey Vernick
Bird Talk by Lita Judge
The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins
If You Lived Here by Giles Larouche
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Minette’s Feast by Susannah Reich

I didn’t read widely enough in any other category to really be able to come up with a shortlist. However, I’d love to see What Came Before the Stars and Horten’s Incredible Illusions on the Fantasy and Science Fiction shortlist and Code Name Verity on the Young Adult shortlist.

What juvenile books would you like to see shortlisted for end of the year awards?

Three for Middle-Grade Readers

I loved this sequel about the amazing Stuart Horten and his uncle’s even more amazing magical illusions. Horten’s Incredible Illusions takes up where the first one left off. Stuart has found his uncle’s famous illusions but now needs to find his uncle’s will to prove that they truly are his to keep. April, the triplet from next door, returns to help Stuart on his quest (along with her sisters May and June). Sequels aren’t always as good as the first in a series, but I enjoyed this one even more than Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms. The puzzles that Stuart has to solve are more complex and the adventures are more exciting. There is also more character development in the evolving relationship between him and the triplets. I finally got John to read the first Horten book and he liked it. He liked this one even more.

I have fast become a huge fan of Gary Schmidt. I read Okay for Now  last month and loved it. This month I read What Came From the Stars and also loved it. I’m not sure I’ve read another book quite like this one. On a distant planet the Valorim have fallen to the evil Lord Mondus. Before their fall they are able to forge a necklace which holds their precious Art (a combination of language, culture, power and creativity) and send it into the universe. The necklace lands in the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, a sixth grader living in Plymouth, MA. Tommy has his own set of problems. His family is grieving the recent death of his mother and fighting with a local realtor over the potential loss of their home. The necklace both changes his life in wonderful ways and brings incredible danger to his family and community as the evil Lord Mondus searches for it. I loved the story and that Schmidt so seamlessly weaves the science fiction storyline into the very realistic world of middle school.

Nancy Yi Fan was 11 years old when she wrote Swordbird. That in itself is quite an accomplishment. For an 11 year old author it’s an excellent book. Unfortunately, that’s the best I can say. The plot is a fairly typical fantasy storyline. Set in a world of anthropomorphic birds whose world is invaded by an evil hawk lord, it involves two tribes of birds fighting back against the invaders while searching for the mythical Swordbird who legend has it will come when needed. As my nine year old pointed out several times, it’s pretty much Redwall redux. Added to that, the writing is often clunky and the characters are two-dimensional.

I will say my boys enjoyed the book well enough. There are two more books in this series but I wouldn’t have a lot of desire to read them except that Sherry from Semicolon gave a very positive review to the third book in the series, Sword Mountain. On a side note, we all really loved the beautifully illustrated drawings of birds by Mark Zug throughout Swordbird.

Horten’s Incredible Illusions and What Came From the Stars have both been nominated for a Cybil in the Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction Category. The third book in the Swordbird series, Sword Mountain was also nominated.

November Armchair Cybils

I am having a great time with the Armchair Cybils. The whole point of this book challenge is to read as many books nominated for a Cybils award as you can or want to. Like last year I’m mostly reading picture books which is  a good way to encourage me to read more with all the kids, but particularly my youngest. It’s also a great way to encourage me to look for new titles and I find it really interesting to think about what makes a book worthy of an award.

In October I posted all the Cybils nominated titles I had read up to that point. Since then I’ve read the following (links are to my reviews):

Fiction Picture Books:
Magritte’s Marvelous Hat by D. B. Johnson
Crafty Chloe by Kelly DiPucchio
Chloe by Peter McCarty
Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett
Chloe, Instead by Micah Player
Falcon by Tim Jessell
The Three Ninja Pigs by Corey Rosen Schwartz
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems

Of these, the ones we enjoyed the most were Magritte’s Marvelous Hat and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. Both were requested multiple times by multiple children. I would add to those Because Amelia Smiled,  Green,  More, and  Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always to make my own personal short list (so far).

Non-Fiction Picture Books:
I Have a Dream by Kadir Nelson
Noah Webster and His Words by Jeri Chase Ferris
Barnum’s Bones by Tracey Fern
Brothers at Bat by Audrey Vernick
Bird Talk by Lita Judge

It’s harder to choose favorites in this category. All of these are excellent and have great kid appeal. The ones my own kids enjoyed the most were Brothers at Bat and Bird Talk. And from the books previously reviewed we all really liked The Beetle Book,  Just a Second and If You Lived Here.

For the rest of the categories I haven’t really read widely enough to choose favorites. The few other nominated books I’ve read are below.

Middle Grade Fiction:
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Extradordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart

Elementary/Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction:
Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms by Lissa Evans
Horten’s Incredible Illusions by Lissa Evans
Island of Silence by Lisa McMann

Short Chapter Book:
The Year of the Book by Andrea Chang

Poetry: 
Forget Me Not: Poems to Learn by Heart edited by Mary Ann Hoberman

Cybils: Chloe x 4

Chloe No 1.
This Chloe isn’t good at sports or video games or ballet. What she is good at is making stuff. When snooty London beats Chloe to buy their friend Emma the perfect birthday present Chloe is at a loss for what to do. She quickly figures it out and creates an even more perfect present. The storyline is solidly cute, if a bit predictable.

 

 

Chloe No. 2

Chloe is right smack in the middle of her family, with 10 older brothers and sisters and 10 younger brothers and sisters. But she likes it there. She especially likes it every night after dinner when her family has family fun time. Until the night that Dad brings home a TV and family fun time is no longer fun. It’s up to Chloe to find a way to remind them how to have fun again together instead of just staring at the TV. I liked the cute bunnies and the muted slightly spare pen and ink illustrations. And I wanted to like the story more. After all, I’m all for the less TV and more family fun time. But the message was just a little too heavy handed which resulted in a clunky story.

Chloe No. 3

This Chloe is the character in a book being written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Adam Rex. That is until Adam won’t illustrate the story that Mac is writing and Mac gets mad and writes that Adam is eaten by a lion and then there is no one to draw Chloe except Mac who is a good writer but terrible artist. It’s a very clever book and one that addresses the interesting relationship between an author and illustrator (something I’ve often wondered about) but not one with a lot of heart. I think maybe I’m a little tired of the slightly snarky and oh so clever trend in picture books. I’m looking for story and often we’re given something that is more of a commentary on the concept of story. Clever, yes. Satisfying, not so much.

Chloe No. 4

Of all the Chloe books, this one had the most simple storyline. It was also the one I read the most this week as Ruth requested it over and over again.

Molly has always wanted a baby sister. A baby sister who would be just like her. A piano player who likes book and to color with crayons. But she got Chloe, instead. Chloe who gets into Molly’s crayons and eats them and her books and rips them. As you can imagine, in the end Molly learns to appreciate and love Chloe. I’m sure that one of the things that appealed to Ruth was the very bright and cheerful illustrations. It also may be that Chloe reminded her just a tiny bit of herself (she who was known as the Pink Destroyer for a while by her brothers). Or it may be that she liked that the ending shows the big sister loving the little sister despite all her faults. Or I could be overthinking it and she just liked it. However, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this book ends with Chloe sneaking into Molly’s bed at night and that Ruth requested a “sleepover” with David tonight. As I write this they are snuggled in his bed together.

All four Chloe books are nominated for a Cybils award in the fiction picture book category. Consider playing along this year in Amy’s Armchair Cybils challenge. Or at least drop by here and Hope is the Word on Thursday for the first link-up of Cybils related reviews.

Wonder

This debut book by R. J. Palacio has gotten a lot of great press and I’m guessing it will win some kind of award for best middle grade book this year. (It has been nominated for the Cybils in the best middle grade fiction category.)Much of the praise is well-deserved. It is a very good book with only a few small problems.

Wonder tells the story of August “Auggie” Pullman a young boy who was born with a severe craniofacial deformity. Because of his complicated medical history he has been homeschooled up to the fifth grade. The book begins with Auggie entering a private school in NYC and explores what it is like for him to adjust to a new school, deal with bullies and how he works to be normal and fit in (like most middle schoolers but with more challenges).

Auggie’s story is compelling. Palacio is pitch-perfect in capturing his voice and he is a likable and sympathetic but also very believable character from the beginning. From my experience working with parents of kids who have serious medical problems I think she also captures the struggles of Auggie’s parents well. There is the normal angst over letting a child grow up and have more freedom that is made even more acute by an established pattern of being very worried about that child’s health and being rightfully overprotective.

Now for a few small quibbles. The story is told in first person narrative but from multiple viewpoints. This works ok when we get to hear Auggie’s sister’s perspective on being the sibling to a child who gets a lot more attention than you and all the confused and guilty emotions surrounding that. It also works well to hear from Auggie’s new friend Jack so that we can understand some of his actions better. However, Palacio takes this idea too far. We hear from Auggie’s sister’s new boyfriend and the sister’s estranged friend. Auggie as a character is so compelling we really want to hear mostly from him. The other characters are too distracting. The different voices are also not distinct enough so that much of the book sounds like it’s from the same perspective even though it’s supposed to be different characters.

Equally distracting to me was the social life of these fifth graders. I was truly shocked by the world portrayed. A world where being in the right social group is king and the boys and girls are openly dating. At one point Jack,a fifth grade boy remarks to Auggie about one of their friends “When did she get so hot?” I’m not completely naive, I know kids care about cliques and young teens date. But fifth grade felt young to me. I don’t have kids in private school in NYC or in school outside the home anywhere so I’m not sure if this is reality or not. I can only imagine that it is the author’s experience given the description on the book jacket blurb of Palacio living in NYC with her two sons. I do have a son not much younger than Auggie and I cannot imagine him describing any of the girls he knows as “hot” or of being interested in dating or in being popular. Perhaps I am naive. Perhaps he is sheltered due to homeschooling. I admit to being ok with that.

The social life of the fifth graders doesn’t really take away from the book’s literary merit but it did distract me from the main plot. A final small quibble is that the book is a little too neat. Amy compared it to an afterschool special and I would agree with that. There is a line between giving the characters hope and giving them all nice little endings tied up with a bow. Wonder does a bit too much of the latter. I think one reason people might like it so much is that we can read it and feel good. We can imagine ourselves as one of the “good people” who would see Auggie’s beauty inside. It makes us feel like we are doing something positive just by reading it and being on Auggie’s side. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it cheats us of what could have perhaps been a more difficult but more complex story. What if the bully stayed at the school and Auggie knew he had to continue facing him? What if Auggie wasn’t always so likeable?

Still, even with those quibbles it’s a very good book and well worth reading.

And the Nominees Are…

We read a lot of books.When thinking about what books to nominate for the Cybils I felt like it needed to be a book that fulfilled two criteria. First, my kids liked it. There are a lot of books I find beautiful or sweet or funny but my kids don’t. I realize my three don’t represent kids everywhere but they are the best sample group I have access to and any book I’m nominating for best children’s book of the year has to be liked by at least one of them. Bonus points if they all liked it (not always easy with a 6 year age spread). Secondly, I looked for books that I felt added something new to the genre. Maybe they were unusual in theme or presentation or characters. Maybe they were particularly beautiful. Something that made them special. (And yes, I know I’m just nominating books and really what I think is more interesting to me than anyone else. But it was fun for me to think about why a book deserved to be nominated.)

In the Fiction Picture Book category I chose More by I. C. Springman and illustrated by Brian Lies. Personally, I loved And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano  and thought about nominating that one. But none of my kids liked it that much. They humored me when I went on and on about how beautiful it was (and it is beautiful) but it didn’t really engage them. This almost wordless picture book by I. C. Springman was a close second in my mind and my kids all really enjoyed it. Full review here. 

In the Nonfiction Picture Book category I nominated If You Lived Here: Houses of the World by Giles Laroche. The illustrations are beautiful, unbelievably intricate paper cut collages and the variety of different houses is fascinating. We had a great discussion at dinner the night we read this and my boys still refer to the houses in this book from time to time (more than nine months after reading it). See here for my full review.

In the Easy Reader/Early Chapter Books category I nominated the charming Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always by Teo Nyeu. This book is sweet and lovely on its own but I especially liked that it breaks the mold for this genre; being a sort of hybrid picture book and early chapter book. In fact, it breaks the mold so much I’m not sure if they will accept it in the category. We’ll see. Regardless, it’s a fabulous book. My full review here.

In the Poetry category I chose the deliciously wickedly funny Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It by Gail Carson Levine. My boys are not poetry lovers so I didn’t worry about finding one that appealed to them. This appealed to me and I loved the concept. Someone else beat me to formally nominating it so I’m glad to see that someone else shares my slighly odd sense of humor. Full review here.

I don’t read a ton of YA fiction but Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is one of the best books I’ve read this year in any category. I highly recommend this book about two young WWII British spies to readers of any age. I’m not surprised that someone else beat me to to nominate this one.

Cybils!

The Cybils are coming! You can start nominating your favorite children’s and young adults books between Oct 1-12th at their website. Start making your lists now.