Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human? Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
This book starts out in the town of Wall in England.  The Faerie Market is about to begin just outside the gates.  Dunstan Thorn, a very ordinary farmer, meets a beautiful and beguiling slave at the market and she gives him a glass snowdrop. Dunstan marries and ordinary girl from Wall but receives a baby in a basket that he conceived with the slave.  He names the baby Tristran.  We then skip ahead 18 years.  Tristran is in love with the town beauty and pledges to find and deliver a fallen star in exchange for her hand in marriage.  The adventure begins.  Tristran takes off into Faerie to discover many new things.  Including, but not limited to, the star is a ethereal girl with the name Yvaine.  I love Neil Gaiman's stories and this is no exception.  I love that he includes nursery rhymes and interprets them literally.  The first we come across is "How many miles to Babylon?"

How many miles to Babylon?

Three score miles and ten.

Can I get there by candle-light?

Yes, and back again.

If your heels are nimble and light,

You may get there by candle-light.

Tristran uses this rhyme and a candle to cover months worth of walking in just a few steps.  He also throws in "The Lion and the Unicorn."

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown

The lion beat the unicorn all around the town.

We are introduced to the Unicorn that the moon sends to assist Yvaine and Tristran.  The lion and Unicorn were fighting and Tristran steps in as the lion goes in for the kill.  Incidentally, the rhyme is about the English Coat of Arms, so naturally I love it.  The adventure is a good one; filled with intrigue, faries, ghosts, poison, a race to get the "treasure" and a ship that floats.  The twist is a good, though foreseeable, one.  In any worthwhile fairy story, things are not what they seem and people are not who you think they are.  So, of course, she is not JUST a slave girl.  Tristran is not JUST a heart sick teenager, foolishly chasing rainbows (or stars).  If this were a story told around a campfire, I would have come away with a euphoric feeling of having just had a magnificent experience.  Since it was a book, I am left feeling a bit discontented.  I had a similar occurrence after reading Neverwhere.  I wanted something more out of it.  There were so many wonderful ideas!  I wanted to know more about the Lilim.  Who were they, what were they once?  What about this Castle Fellowship?  I understand they were protecting the heir but who are the others?  How did they know about him?  How did it start?  And Captain Alberic and the Perdita!!  An airborne ship that harvests lightening?!  Fantastic!  But I need more!  I was left wondering about the Stormhold and Una and wanted a bit of a back story there.  What happened with Madam Semele/Ditchwater Sal in her past?  And that strange  inclusion at the end about Tristran breaking the power of the Unseelie court?  More on that as well, if you don't mind Mr. Gaiman.  All in all, I enjoyed this book.  Would recommend it and read it again.  He is an amazing story teller and a talented writer.  An extra hundred pages would have made him a genius.

P.S. This is a picture of the Fairy Market by Charles Vess in a 2007 edition of the book.  Wish I would have read that one!!

**Sigh**

 Busy Birdies by John Schindel
I though I would share how these sweet little books are RUINING MY LIFE.  If I haven't shared with you my philosophy on the library yet, I will now.  I give my kids (previously just Doodle and Lula) free reign there.  They each have their own library bags and they can choose whatever picture book they want.  They are allowed to get "chapter" books by approval only.  The approval only rule is in place because Doodle will load up his bag with 20 or 30 and we can't possibly read all of those.  We typically "max out" the library card with the 50 books we take home.  Don't get me wrong, I have five cards to different library systems.  So don't feel bad for us, we could get 250 books if we needed to.  This systems has its flaws.  For example, I have had to read two kids books in the last month on infectious diseases.  Not pleasant.  It is worth it though to watch them pick out books and divide them up into piles when we get home.  I will now explain the second flaw and how Busy Birdies comes into play.  Recently, I have started allowing Buggy to get out of her stroller and put baby books into my library bag.  She always chooses one of the "Busy" books like the one above.


Or this...














...Or this.  You get the idea.
The problem, you ask?  She wants me to read them ALL day long and fusses if I don't.  The bigger problem?  She lays on the grounds and screams and kicks her precious little feet when we have to bring them back.  Apparently one year olds do not understand how libraries work.  It is getting on my nerves!  I think I will be ordering some on Amazon next week.  Geesh.

Creepy Crawlies

Ten Little Caterpillars By Bill Martin Jr

This book is about ten different kinds of caterpillars and what they eat.  At the end of the book, is a chart of what each one morphs into.  Great (and pretty accurate) pictures, cute story and good information.  My little nature nerds ate it up.  We read it several times.  After we read it, we glued pom poms to Popsicle sticks to make our own.  Doodle likes things to be accurate, so he wasn't terribly pleased with this activity but Lula loved it (Buggy didn't get to play, she eats things)!  This was a good fit for all three kids, with simple story structure and bright pictures to the information in the back.

There and back again

This is what I'm currently re-reading.  Getting VERY excited about the movie.  This is a fun copy of it with pictures.  I love the line, "Don't be a fool Mr Baggins if you can help it."  Genius.  I think I will start saying that to people.  It is lovely to revisit an old favorite.

Love Love Love

Eloise By Kay Thompson
“I am Eloise. I am six. I live at the Plaza hotel.”  Her mother travels and she is left in the care of Nanny.  She is a very busy little girl and spends most of her day entertaining herself with mischief!  She does all kids of naughty things such as running down the hallways with drumsticks and banging on the doors with them as she passes; pouring water down the mail slot so the person at the bottom gets wet; and generally harassing her tutor and everyone at the hotel.  She orders room service and stays up late with Nanny.  This is a very boisterous book that is at first glance a bit of a pain to read.  The sentences are very long and run together.  About a quarter of the way through the book, I realized I was doing it wrong!  It is written in first person with our mischievous six year old as the protagonist.  Once I understood the cadence, the book was a pleasure to read.  In the beginning of the book, it should state the directions.  "Please read using the following rules.  Take a deep breath at the beginning of every sentence.  Use only one breath per sentence   Picture a six year old telling an exciting story and using "and then, and then" between lines."  We adore the way Nanny says one word three times. "Eloise, that would be rude, rude, rude."  I've heard my littles say things like that several times in the last few weeks.  The book was written in the fifties and so there are some interesting things included.  For example, one evening Eloise and Nanny are watching TV and Nanny is smoking.  There are a lot of people that find all of that objectionable.  Perhaps, I am not as good of a mama but we think it is a rollicking good time!!  We love Eloise's impetuous nature and giggle at at all of her pranks.  A few times as we were reading, I stopped and stuck in something like, "it isn't very nice to say that someone is boring, boring, boring is it?"  I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but I will remind you of my position.  I don't think that EVERY book needs to help kids tune their moral compass.  Some of them can just be pure entertainment.  This is the latter and we love love love it.

Oh Mercy!

Mercy Watson By Kate DiCamillo

Mercy Watson, the porcine wonder loves butter.  Especially if it is on hot toast.  She is the pet of Mr and Mrs Watson on 54 Deckawoo Drive.  She performs all kids of amazing feats while after butter or butter flavored things!  These books are very fun and silly.  Lula chose them at the library.  Doodle and I have been reading chapter books for a while and she wanted a "grown up book."  We found this one and decided to give it a try.  What good luck!  These are perfect for my three year old (my 5 year old loves them too, Buggy doesn't care...).  Since we've started reading them, we talk about Mercy and hot buttered toast almost constantly.  There are six books in this little series and we have one to go!  I have a feeling we will be re-reading them!  Highly recommend these to preschoolers/toddlers.  Each "chapter" around three pages and each page is typically 2 or 3 sentences.  Perfect!



         
 

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.” William Shakespeare

The Fault in our Stars
        By John Green

It has taken me a long time and a lot of distance to review this book.  The Fault in Our Stars is about cancer.  Specifically it is about teenagers and cancer.  It is hard to read and I wasn't sure if I could or even wanted to.  I'm glad that I did.  Hazel Grace is our protagonist.  She has terminal cancer.  It is a type of cancer that has been terminal since the beginning.  Her attitude was one of treading lightly.  She wanted her death to cause as little mess as possible; wanted to leave a faint footprint.  This is a very different book from what I was expecting.  I thought it was going to be a "6 months to live" type sob story that was popular when I was a teenager.  In those books, the patient wanted to make a difference, have the last days count, touch as many lives as possible and be remembered.  They make cancer out to be slightly romantic.  This book is not like that.  John Green was very brave about writing this.  He shows cancer as messy, gut wrenching and real.  This is much more than a sob story.  It tackles big issues like the meaning of our existence.  Perhaps we are not as big of a deal as we think.  Most of us will walk this earth, do our best and leave this earth and hopefully cause very little damage.  Only a handful of the masses will do something earth shattering and that is ok.  It is also surprisingly funny.  He is a very witty writer and this book is no different.  I think my favorite line is when Hazel says to Augustus, "It's embarrassing that we all just walk through life blindly accepting that scrambled eggs are fundamentally associated with breakfast."  John Green and his books are proof that to be a young adult author, you do not have to write drivel.  There is no need to constantly repeat words such as "like" and "totally" to persuade teenagers to read and appreciate it.  I think authors like John Green challenge young people to think and grow.  I know I have been.

Dirty, stinking, rotters

Rotters by Daniel Kraus

How do I feel about Rotters?  My first thought is, this book is not for everyone.  It will push you to the edge of your comfort level and then a little further.  The graphic details of what it means to be a digger will make you cringe but leave you wanting more.  The complexities behind the diggers, their morals, motives and codes of conduct confuse you.  You want to hate these men, they are grave robbers but you don't.  You like them, you begin, with Kraus' help, to identify with them, you see yourself in them as you watch them toil with their daily struggles of surviving in a world they are not part of.  Initially, you love to hate Harnett, and then as he begins to teach Joey, you start to become attached.  There is someone underneath all of the filth and as it starts to crumble away, you see a complex man that is passionate about what he does.  He isn’t just a grave robber.  He is a ressurectionist. 

Daniel Kraus has a brilliant grasp of the English language and can wield it until you see things exactly as he describes.   His characters come to life and you can see them, smell them, hear them.   They are wonderfully unique from anything I have read before.  All they want to do is become oblivion but we will never forget them.   Joey, Harnett, Boggs, Lionel and many more, all characters that are fascinating and splendid.   I was looking for a good book that was gripping and well written and Rotters did not disappoint.   YA authors look out; the bar has been raised.

Terrible Twits

The Twits by Roald Dahl

I just finished reading this to Doodle.  It is about two wretched people, Mr. and Mrs. Twit, that appear to hate each other.  They spend the first half of the book playing mean tricks on each other and the second half attempting to eat birds.  It is a very discriptive book and has a picture about every other page.  Doodle liked it (Lula would stand up when we pulled the book out and say "I'm not listening to that.") because of the delightful evil anticts of the two but was not particularily excited about it.  Until the last third of the book, it reads like a collection of short stories.  That is fine but doesn't envoke a feeling of anticipation.  Other chapter books we've read usually have some sniffles at the end of each chapter because Doodle is not ready to be done and can't wait to hear what comes next.  Not so with this book.  I'll be honest, this wasn't my favorite book to read aloud.  Some books I can't wait to read to them and don't want to miss out of the experience, this one I would skip.  I reccomend it to kids about 7 or so that can read on their own and leave the grown ups out of it!

Beastly or Ghastly?

Beastly by Alex Flinn

I'm not really sure where to begin with this.  I think most know the story behind Beauty and the Beast.  Shallow, mean and vain young man irritates the wrong girl (that is really a witch) and she turns him into a hideous beast.  He has a set amount of time to find someone that can look past the nightmare of how he looks and fall in love with him.  He, in return, must love her.  Roses, mirrors and rooms filled with broken furniture are usually involved.  This story is no different.  Kyle Kingsbury is rich, spoiled and mean-spirited teenager.  He seeks out opportunities to show the world what kind of filth he really is.  He leads a "goth" girl to believe he is going to escort her to prom and then shows up with another (equally disgusting) girl in an effort to humiliate her.  The goth girl turns out to be a witch and transforms Kyle into a beast.  His dad locks him up in a New York estate with a tutor and a maid.  Enter low-life dad of Lindy. He breaks into the house one night and was caught by Kyle (or Adrian, as his teenage, angsty self prefers to go by).  In exchange for his freedom, he gives Kyle is daughter.  Blah Blah blah, he falls in love, lets her go, she comes back (just in time of course), they kiss, spell is broken. I apologize if I just spoiled it for you.  Critics claim it has a "twist."  I, personally, don't see it.  It is told from the beast's point of view but I think that most other versions (including Disney) do a pretty thorough job of mapping out the beast's feelings and motivations.  I don't know that we need to dedicate an entire book to it.  The big difference is online shopping. Kyle does a lot of it. I don't remember that in any other version.  The online chatting, however, is RIDICULOUS!!  He chats with other (very Disneyish) characters that either have been transformed or want to be.  I loathed those parts of the book.  I was unimpressed with the book in general.  By all means, retell a much loved story but intrigue us please!  If I had to recommend it to someone it would be junior high girls only, I think.

Jane

Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell

This lovely book starts with a sweet black and white picture of a little girl holding her chimpanzee, very similar to the drawing.  We learn that her chimp is called Jubilee and she dreams of living in the jungle and helping animals.  The little girl goes to sleep one night and when she wakes up she really is in the jungle.   Who knew, this story is about Jane Goodall!  I had no preconceptions of this book, what-so-ever when we picked it up.  I am trying to collect all Caldecott winners and Caldecott honor books starting from 1937.  This received the honor in 2012 and although we have not read the award winner (A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka), I think this would have gotten my vote to win.  I had no idea that it was about Jane Goodall until the last page when the little girl woke up in the jungle and there was a picture of Jane with a real chimpanzee.  The illustrations are adorable and I loved the real life photographs incorporated in at the beginning and the end.  She really did have a chimp called Jubilee as well.  We used this story to talk about what Doodle and Lula wanted to be when they grew up and how even dreams at 3 and 5 are attainable!  Highly recommend his book to all preschool and school aged kids.  Also a great lead in for some interesting natural history lessons.

A World of Food by Carl Warner

This is a fantastic book.  "If all the world were yellow..."

Carl Warner goes through the colors and makes landscapes with different food for each color.  Each page has wonderful detail and descriptions.

"If all the world were brown..."

"If all the world were purple..."

"If all the world were red..."

Not a big fan of red however.  Mostly made of raw meat.  Yuck.  The rest of the book is beautiful.  It is defiantly food for the imagination.  Lula loved it so much we read it AT LEAST three times a day.  She is going through a phase that she isn't very interested in books so anything that gets her attention I'm a sucker for.   We renewed from the library twice and even then I had to pry it out of her grubby little hands to avoid library fines.  If you have kids that are foodies or like to cook, this is a fantastic choice.  It makes ME want to play with my food!  

Crooked

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
By Tom Franklin











I can't tell you much about this book without giving things away!  It takes place in Mississippi-m-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-humpback-humpback-i.  It follows the lives of two very different people with more in common than they know and a crime that changes a community.    I have mixed feelings about this book. It is definitely a worthwhile read. I am left with feelings of what this book COULD have been. The characters are splendid. Both boys made mistakes and did hurtful things to each other as teenagers. One boy lost one friend but was otherwise successful and the other lost all friends and was debilitated because of it. One was given every opportunity to succeed and became a man of average intelligence. The other had everything taken away from him and became a highly intelligent man (although his grammar is atrocious). Both changed from choices made years ago. I loved this about the book. I enjoyed feeling connected and appreciative of the underdog and feeling disenchanted with the hero. I did not really like the plot. It was very predictable. As soon as the tangent was introduced, I knew his fate. If Tom Franklin could have put those characters into a new and interesting story line, this could have been a classic.

Peculiar

Mrs Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs

This is a difficult book to review.   I wanted to love it.  It has interesting vintage photographs and a compelling story line.   The book is a mess, quite frankly.  As I read it, it felt like I was reading an early draft of a novel or someone's brainstorm of book they would like to write.   It needs some work.   I gave it three stars because it is a good idea. Yes, it does vaguely resemble a school taught by Charles Xavier but it has enough of its own original ideas that it works. BUT THERE IS SOMETHING MISSING. The characters are not fully developed. Even now, I find myself trying to remember the protagonist's name. That shouldn't happen. I enjoy reading a book that the main character is so firmly implanted in my mind that I feel as though we could be friends. What's-his-name falls short. Emma's character development isn't bad but Miss Peregrine's is very disappointing  An older, pipe smoking school marm should be a very complex character; I thought she was boring. Hopefully, Ransom Riggs can pull it together for the second book and bring a stronger creation to the table.

Dragons!

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Elmer Elevator is on a mission to save a baby dragon from the Wild Island.  This quick thinking little boy is equipped with a backpack full of supplies that he uses to solve various problems with surly animals he meets along the way.  Following a tip from an old alley cat, he becomes a stow-away on a ship and lands on the island of Tangerina. From there he figures out to cross the land bridge begins making his treacherous trek around the Wild Island to save the dragon (we later find out his name is Borris.  I wish I had a dragon named Borris).  He runs into an assortment of different animals that are less than pleased he is visiting.  He manages to distract them with his bag of tricks (who knew, if you give tigers chewing gum, they will not eat you) and saves the dragon.  We absolutely love this book.  And by love, I mean I have to confiscate it from under Doodle's pillow almost every night. We tracked Elmer's progress with the detailed map at the front of the book after every chapter.  Ruth Gannett wrote two other books after this, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland.  We read both of those and they were a bit disappointing.  They were not quite as exciting as the first book. Every little adventurer should read this book or have it read to them.  It was our first venture into chapter books and was the perfect choice!  

Silly Pigs

Moo, Baa, La La La! By Sandra Boynton
We love all of Sandra's books.  All of us.  If I pull one out to read to Buggy, Doodle will typically come running to peak over my shoulder.  She writes about silly farm animals (and occasionally dinosaurs and monsters).  Something about pigs makes Buggy laugh, so we pull this one out often.  Who doesn't love pigs that say La La La instead of boring old oink?!  I recommend this and the rest of Sandra's books to kids of all ages but especially for those under 2.

Moral Compass (or lack there of)

Tikki Tikki Tembo retold by Arlene Mosel is about two little boys in China that both fall in a well on two separate occasions.  Their rescue and recovery vary because of the length of their names.  The second son, Cheng, is rescued quickly because it doesn't take very long for his brother to say, "Hello people, Cheng is in the well."   When Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo falls in the well, it is a different story.  It takes little Cheng some time to communicate with his mother and then the old man with the ladder that action must be taken because he first needs to say his brother's unreasonably long name.   I have read MANY reviews of this book online.  Most are outraged at the historically inaccuracies, some are insulted that there is very little to be learned from it, and few just plain liked the book.  I fall into the few category.  My kids are interested in other cultures (not Buggy, she's 1 and oblivious) and were excited to read about people that say "ni hao."  I sat down with them one night and read the book through one time.  Doodle promptly asked to read it again while Lula got down to play with her toys.  Later that night as I was getting them ready for bed, we were talking about the book and Lula promptly starts reciting "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo."  My heart sang!  My point is that STUCK.  Even while she was messing around and not giving the story her whole attention, it interested her enough that she remembered the name.  That's all I ask.  Books that hook them in.  It is OK with me that the book didn't teach the kids not to play in the well or that mothers shouldn't have a most favored son.  Not every book, story, and folk tale need to teach kids how to have a working moral compass.  Some just need to teach them to love reading.  Mission accomplished.