Ladybug Nominee Profile

Sometimes you just can't help it. The characters in your storybook are headed for trouble, you can see it coming, and they can't. What is a sympathetic litttle red chicken supposed to do?

In this charming book by David Ezra Stein chicken jumps right in to warn them and wraps up the story before anyone gets hurt. Papa thinks this is interrupting.

This Caldecott Honor book is among the titles in the Candlewick Read to Us! Story-hour Kit.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Book of the Week #39

The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America's Mountain Domes, from Acadia to Yosemite by Tom Wessels; illustrations by Brian D. Cohen (Woodstock, Vt.: The Countryman Press, 2001)

How does the ocean floor to the east of Bermuda relate to the age of New Hampshire's granite? What is rock outcrop succession? What does Henry David Thoreau have to do with it? What does the composition of the headstones tell you about New England cemeteries? These questions, and many more, are answered in terms easily understood by non-geologists (that would definitely include me!) by New Hampshire author Tom Wessels. The focus of the book is granite domed mountains, like Mount Chocorua.

"To truly understand and appreciate these unique mountain domes, there are certain things we need to know: why granite is distinct among rocks; how it is created; why all mountains have a granite core; why granite weathers to form smooth, rounded domes, how plants colonize these harsh, dry, acidic environments; and how disturbance perpetually keeps these domes open and exposed. By examining the origins of granite, glaciation, outcrop succession, and the role of disturbance, the four chapters of part One lay the geological and ecological foundations for the features that are common to all exposed granite domes. Part Two then explores the particular natural history of granite domes found in the various mountain ranges in our northern states."(p. 17)

Book of the Week #38

J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski (NY: Random House, 2010)

J.D. Salinger lived in Cornish, N.H. for many years, and was nearly as famous for his reclusive life as for his writing. Kenneth Slawenski, a huge fan of Salinger recently published this new life of the creator of Catcher in the Rye. Whether or not he has made a useful contribution to our knowledge of Salinger is under debate. The Washington Post thought well of the book, one reviewer for the New York Times found value to it. Jay McInerney, writing in the New York Times Book Review had major concerns about the book and Slate's reviewer was very displeaased. Salinger raised controversy in his life and is continuing to do so in his lives. This is a very readable work, so consider what the critics have to say, and judge the book for yourself.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

New Hampshire author David Elliott has created a collection poems about wild animals which have been beautifully illustrated with woodcuts by Holly Meade. Elliott's verses are clear and straitforward, nothing to confuse his readers, but they contain references to larger issues (extinction, evolution, even a nod to William Blake) that add depth to the collection.

The Panda

You're a bamboo bandit;

you're a piebald dream.

You're a bear in silk pajamas;

you're cookies and cream.

You're the wizard of the mountains;

you're pres-ti-di-gi-ta-tion!

You're nature's best example

of bear imagination.

Reproduced here with permission of the poet.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Celebrate Your Right to Read at RiverRun

RiverRun Bookstore is inviting you to Celebrate Free Speech by reading your favorite Banned Book at the store on Wednesday, September 28th at 7pm.

Here are details from their announcement:

September 26th-October 2nd is National Banned Books Week, and libraries and bookstores all over the country will be promoting and celebrating beloved books that have found their way at one time or another on to a restricted list at a library or been challenged in a school. These books range from Catcher in the Rye to the Gossip Girls. Some were banned for language, some for depictions of homosexuality, some for religious reasons.

RiverRun Bookstore in downtown Portsmouth believes that in the Live Free or Die state of New Hampshire, people should be able to make their own decisions about what they read. On Wednesday, September 28th at 7pm RiverRun Bookstore will throw a Celebrate Uncensored Reading Party. A member of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union will speak about the importance of freedom of expression, and then local personalities will be reading from some their favorite banned books. Readers include Portsmouth Poet Laureate John-Michael Albert, New Hampshire Public Radio Host Virginia Prescott, The Executive Director of The Music Hall Patricia Lynch and others.

If you'd like to do a short reading during the event, or for further information, contact RiverRun Bookstore at 20 Congress St, Portsmouth NH. Call 603-431-2100 or email info@riverrunbookstore.com

Are you planning an event for Banned Books Week? Add a comment to this post to let us know what's planned.

Book Events this Week

Tuesday, 9/20/2011

• Jonathan Dixon will talk about his memoir, Beaten, Seared, and Sauced, at the The Hollis Social Library at 6:30pm. Registration is required for this event.
• White Birch Books will host a book launch party at 7pm for Tom Ryan's book Following Atticus
• Christiana McEwan will be holding a Creativity Workshop at Water Street Bookstore at 7pm
• Beginning at 7pm RiverRun Bookstore is having a Maine Mystery Night with Julia Spenser Fleming and Paul Dorion

Wednesday, 9/21/2011

• Mary Johnson will be talking about An Unquenchable Thirst at 7pm at Water Street
• Ellen Fitzpatrick will be talking about Letters to Jackie at RiverRun at 7pm
• The Poetry Society of NH will meet at Gibson's starting at 7pm for their monthly open mic. The featured readers will be Robert Crawford and New Hampshire Poet Laureate Walter Butts

Thursday, 9/22/2011

• From 3-5pm White Birch Books will host Hank Parrott, author of Seven Steps to Financial Freedom in Retirement
• Laurence Bergreen, author of Columbus: The 4 Voyages will be speaking at Gibson's at 7pm
• At 7pm Daniel Rasmussen will be at Nashua Public Library talking about American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt
• Mary Johnson will be talking about An Unquenchable Thirst at 7pm at RiverRun

Saturday, 9/24/2011

• Joann Snow Duncanson will read from her book 8 Crayons at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough beginning at 11am
• Also at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, Mary Johnson will be talking about Unquenchable Thirst at 2pm
• At 2pm Ray Glabach will sign and discuss his book The Last Village Smithy: Memories of a Small Town in the New England Hills at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene
• Joni B. Cole, author of Another Bad-Dog Book will be at Water Street starting at 4pm

Sunday, 9/25/2011

•  Joni B. Cole, author of Another Bad-Dog Book, will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Keene at 2pm
• Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough will host Tom Ryan, author of Following Atticus (along with Atticus), at 2pm

Ladybug Nominee Profile

Winter is coming and it's time to get on the train for Hibernation Station. The animals, "big to little," arrive ready for bed and the bears, in railroad caps and train PJs, lead them to sleep for the winter.

Author Michelle Meadows explains that "Hibernation Station is a story about animals snuggling in for winter sleep. I wrote it because I have always wanted to hibernate in the winter. Give me blankets, pillows, books, and hot chocolate. I would be okay until Spring!" Her website includes projects and activities related to her books.

Illustrator Kurt Cyrus provides the fabulously detailed pictures--including an adorable turtle in bedroom slippers who reminds me of someone I know. If you want to become a book illustrator, Cyrus offers a cautionary tale in his How Not to Make a Book.

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Mr. Cyrus's work has been nominated before: Tadpole Rex was nominated in 2009.

Letters About Literature 2012

A Reading Promotion Grant of $10,000 for your school or community library is the national prize in Letters About Literature, a writing contest sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in partnership with Target Stores and coordinated in New Hampshire by the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.

To enter, readers in grades 4-12 write a personal letter to an author, explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves. State winners will advance to national competition and the first-place winner for New Hampshire at each of three competition levels will receive a $100 cash prize.

Deadline for entries is January 6, 2012. To obtain the required entry coupon visit http://lal.nhbookcenter.org/. While you’re there, sign up to get email updates on the NH competition and check out the complete contest rules, a teaching supplement, winning essays from previous years, and other details.

Man Booker Shortlist 2011

The shortlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize was announced this week. Personally, I was pleased to see that I am more current in my reading than usual. I knew about several of these and actually finished one of them already. If you are looking for current, high-caliber fiction this is a list to consider.

Book of the Week #37

World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwen (Peterborough, NH: Bauhan Publishing, 2011).

This is a lovely book in which McEwen gathers together "poetry and art and literary history, Buddhism and contemplative practice, along with a smattering of sociology and statistics." (p.13) as well as insights from a variety of practicing artists. This is a book that can (of course) be read strait through from the introduction to the extensive bibliography at the end. However, in keeping with the spirit of the thing, it also lends itself quite well to browsing. Individual sections and anecdotes are headed in a way that makes them easy to find and intriguing--I wanted to know why 'Silence is Goldfish-blue' and what is 'The trouble with poetry.'  Each chapter ends with 'tactics' which are questions, tasks, and quotes that relate to the chapter and give your own thoughts a place to begin.

One of the key elements of what librarians call "readers' advisory" is that you do not push books on people, you help them find out what books exist that might be of interest to them and match their reading preferences and then you let the reader choose their own book. I find this difficult. Some books just compel me to get everyone I possibly can to read them. This is one of those books.

"Expert or apprentice, maker of whatever kind, writer or gardener, artist or teacher: my hope is that this is a book that will be of practical use to you, and to which you will return again and again. It was written for my friends and students, which is to say, for a wide-ranging general audience, most of whom remain chronically over-worked. But it was written with the fierce conviction that despite the daily onslaught of racket and distraction, it still remains possible, even now, to turn these things around: to spin straw into gold, time into eternity, anxiety into ease and inspiration." (p.14)

Christian McEwen will be leading mini-workshops on creativity at several New Hampshire bookstores in the near future:

•  9/17/11 at Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough from 11am-12:30pm
• 9/20/11 at Water Street Bookstore beginning at 7pm
• 9/26/11 at White Birch Books from 7:00-8:30pm

Upcoming Book Events

Tonight, 9/13/11

• Brendan DuBois will be at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 7pm signing Deadly Cove

Wednesday, 9/14/11

• Charles C. Mann will be talking about 1493 at Red River Theatres, hosted by Gibson's, at 6pm (note time)
• RiverRun is hosting a writing workshop with Wendy Call and Midge Raymond. (Free, Reservations needed)
• Poet Ewa Chrusciel will be the featured reader at Water Street's open mic beginning at 6:30pm

Thursday, 9/15/11

• Gibson's is hosting a night of mystery with Brendan DuBois and Toby Ball at 7pm
• Sandra Garson, author of the cookbook Veggiyana will be speaking at RiverRun at 7pm

Saturday, 9/17/2011

• Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough will host a mini-workshop with Christian McEwan, author of World Enough and Time, at 11am.
• Ray Glabach, author of The Last Village Smithy, will be speaking at Toadstool Bookshop, Milford at 2pm

Monday, 9/19/2011

• RiverRun will host William Sargent, author of The Well From Hell, at 7pm
• Lois Lowry will be at Gibson's at 7pm talking about her latest book, Bless This Mouse. Plan to get there early -- this is Lois Lowry!

Ladybug Nominee Profile

According to illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, he and author Bob Racza put together this collection of illustrated haiku as "an invitation for boys to swim in the 'poem pond.'"
The Guyku web site includes info on writing guyku, teacher's resources, and a gals protest section.

The wind and I play
tug-of-war with my new kite.
The wind is winning.

When you’re a guy, nature is one big playground—no matter what the season. There are puddles to splash in the spring, pine trees to climb in the summer, maple seeds to catch in the fall, and icicles to swordfight with in the winter.

Nature also has a way of making a guy appreciate important stuff—like how many rocks it takes to dam up a stream, or how much snow equals a day off from school.

So what kind of poetry best captures these special moments, at a length that lets guys get right back to tree-climbing and kite-flying? Why, guyku, of course!

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award.

Terry Brooks in NH!

Terry Brooks will be at Gibson's on Saturday, 9/10/11 at 11am.

This is a rare chance to meet a rock star of fantasy fiction. Brooks doesn't tour a lot and rarely makes repeat visits to the same places. He will be talking about his new novel, The Measure of the Magic, which is the sequel to his first Legends of Shannara novel, Bearers of the Black Staff. If you haven't read Brooks' work check out his advice on reading order to figure out where to begin.

Book of the Week #36

Ocean-born Mary: The Truth Behind a New Hampshire Legend by Jeremy D'Entremont (The History Press, 2011)

D'Entremont, an expert on lighthouses and a Portsmouth resident, has turned his attention to the story of Ocean-born Mary for his latest book. He will be reading from this new book at RiverRun Bookstore on Thursday, 9/8/2011 at 7pm.

Meet Mary: ocean-born and named by an infamous pirate. Her birth saved a group of Scottish immigrants aboard a ship bound for New England in 1720. Halfway through the grueling voyage, pirates intercepted and captured the vessel. Upon hearing a baby’s cry, the pirate captain promised to spare the lives of all on board if the mother named her newborn Mary, possibly after his beloved mother. The ship arrived safely in Massachusetts, and Mary lived most of her long life in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Discover the house in Henniker, New Hampshire, that Mary is said to haunt and where a pirate purportedly stashed his treasure. Join historian Jeremy D’Entremont as he separates the facts from the fantastic legends shrouding one of New England’s most enduring folk tales.

Ladybug Nominee Profile

Karma Wilson was inspired by a Christmas gift she chose for her agent to create this fun rhyming story about who eats what on the farm. Artist and musician Marcellus Hall created the pictures.

"As a farmer makes his daily rounds, readers learn what he feeds his animals and how often. ... In a twist, readers are reminded after each animal's feeding, "But the cow loves cookies." As the cumulative story progresses, what each creature eats is repeated in successive fashion. "The geese munch corn; it tastes so fine./The hogs think slop is just divine./The dog adores his doggy treats./But Cow would rather eat things sweet.." The story ends with Farmer and Cow sharing cookies and milk. The cleverly rhyming text and pace of the story make it perfect for a read-aloud. The whimsical ink and watercolor illustrations add to the humor. An instant storytime crowd pleaser." School Library Journal review

This is one of the ten titles nominated for the 2011 Ladybug Picture Book Award. Ms. Wilson's work has been nominated before: Bear Snores On (2003) and Moose Tracks! (2007) were past Ladybug Picture Book Award nominees.