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By Mom Unplugged, January 19, 2010 2:06 am

Yesterday morning was the big announcement of this year’s Newbery and Caldecott children’s book award winners. Drum roll please…

2010 WINNER – When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

2010 HONORS –

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (YIPPEE!! Bought this for my 9 year-old for Christmas!)

Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick

2010 WINNER – The Lion & the Mouseby Jerry Pinkney

2010 HONORS –

All the World illustrated by Marla Frazee, written by Liz Garton Scanlon

Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!

PS: How well do you know your children’s book awards? If you can’t tell your Theodor Seuss Geisel Award from your Pura Belpré Award, then you can read up on them all here.

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By Mom Unplugged, July 1, 2009 3:28 pm

While surfing the “What Others Bought” links at Amazon one day last winter, I discovered the wonderful old book Twig, by author and illustrator Elzabeth Orton Jones (1910-2005).  My 8 year-old daughter really likes tales of fairies and magic and this book sounded perfect.  It WAS perfect.  My daughter adored it and read it in one sitting!

She even chose it for her school book report book, complete with a cute diorama (I wish we had saved that to illustrate this post, but alas, it was taken apart and scattered who knows where).

This 1942 story centers around Twig (which was also the author’s nickname), a lonely little girl who decides one day to make a fairy house out of a discarded old tomato can.  I will let you discover the wonderful adventure that ensues.

I am so grateful to Purple House Press, the publisher of our 2002 edition of Twig, for their wonderful work in reprinting this lost treasure!  The mission of Purple House Press is:

“to revive long lost, but well loved children’s books. Today’s children deserve to read wholesome stories from a simpler time and we know grownups want to revisit with old childhood friends too!”

You can still order Twig from the Purple House Press website, but all they have left are more expensive editions autographed by Elizabeth Orton Jones.  We loved the book so much, that I just ordered an autographed copy to have in our collection of very special, keep always, books.

You can also order new (from Amazon affiliate sellers only) or used copies of Twig from Amazon.  Our copy was a used one from an Amazon seller but it was in like-new condition and far less expensive than the Amazon affiliates’ new editions.

After enjoying Twig, my daughter wanted to read more books by Elizabeth Orton Jones. I searched about and found Big Susan, written in 1947 and also published by Purple House Press in 2002.

Big Susan is about a little girl and her dollhouse (the story is based on the actual doll house and dolls that the author played with as a child).  The dollhouse is in complete disarray on Christmas Eve, the one night of the year where the dolls can come to life.

We read this story together as a bedtime book and I laughed out loud at the descriptions of the poor dolls (Nurse was standing on her head in the bathroom wash basin) and the general state of the dollhouse.  It reminded me of our always-messy dollhouse. It also, sadly, somewhat resembles our own house at times (although I have yet to find myself upside down in a wash basin)!

This is a sweet story all about Christmas magic, love, friendship and giving.  My children and I all loved it and were sorry to see it end.  Although it is more of a girl book I suppose, my 7 year-old son adored it and was actually the most eager to keep reading on every night.

Big Susan is easier to find than Twig.  You can order it directly from Purple House, or from Amazon.

Trust me. These are books you’ll love and want to keep to pass down to your grandchildren!

Here are pictures of the text of Twig, to give you some idea of the reading level (it is 152 pages long) – recommended ages 6 to 12:

Here is Big Susan (a slightly easier reading level than Twig with only 83 pages and lots of sweet illustrations by the author) – recommended ages 6 to 10:

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By Mom Unplugged, February 17, 2009 10:44 pm

I find so much good stuff by surfing Amazon!  Having no “real” bookstore here and only a tiny library, it is one of my best ways for discovering great books.

One of our latest wonderful reads is Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace.  I believe it is something of a classic although it was new to me.  Hopefully I am not demonstrating my ignorance of classic children’s literature by recommending it, but recommend it I do!

The story revolves around two five year old neighbors, Betsy and Tacy, who become such inseparable friends, that the title of the book must be Betsy-Tacy (rather than Betsy and Tacy, get it?):

“Betsy’s brown braids went with Tacy’s red curls, Betsy’s plump legs with Tacy’s spindly ones…” (p.1)

Betsy is outgoing, Tacy is shy.  But, after a rocky start, opposites do attract and the pair become a “unit” as suggested by the title.

The girls enjoy simple adventures, mostly involving a lot of imagination.  It is all very sweet and innocent and charming.  There is nothing that I could find to scare particularly sensitive readers.  Even I enjoyed reading a bit further along every night before bedtime.

The only potentially upsetting moment is when Tacy’s baby sister dies of an illness.  The episode is not really about Baby Bee, but the focus is on how Betsy sweetly comforts sad Tacy.  It was well-handled and my rather sensitive children were not upset by it at all.

The author Maud Hart Lovelace was born in Mankato, Minnesota in 1892.  This series of books is about her memories of her childhood, “…the happiest childhood a child could possibly know…” (quote from Maud Hart Lovelace, inside of back cover).

The author is Betsy, right down to the straight hair that wouldn’t curl.  Her lifelong best friend Frances Kenney (known as “Bick” – baby-talk for “Brick” – due to her red curls) is the model for Tacy.  The pair met at Maud’s 5th birthday party, just as Betsy and Tacy meet at Betsy’s 5th birthday.

The book has a very interesting section at the end about Maud Hart Lovelace and her life, complete with some photos of both her and “Bick.”  For even more information, there is a Betsy-Tacy Society in Mankato with its own website:  www.betsy-tacysociety.org.  If you want to, you can even attend their Betsy-Tacy Convention from July 17-20, 2009 in Mankato, MN.

DETAILS – 14 Chapters plus author information, 122 pages, fairly large type-face, some line-drawn illustrations.

Hmmm…..I guess these books are way more popular than I realized.

Enjoy!

PS.  We’ll be reading all the others ASAP.  By the way, although these books would obviously appeal to girls, my 6 year-old son was just as captivated as his 8 year-old sister.  If you have a young boy, you might want to try one from the library because he just might love it also!

Here are all the books in order:

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By Mom Unplugged, October 16, 2008 1:39 pm

I am on a roll with Swedish children’s books after last week’s recommendation of Astrid Lindgren’s The Children of Noisy Village and Happy Times in Noisy Village.  That post reminded me of Maj Lindman’s two lovely series:  Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and Snipp, Snapp, Snurr.

Don’t you love it when you wander into a thrift store and discover something wonderful?  I know I do.  It always brightens my day when that happens.  Snipp, Snapp, Snurr, and the Reindeer and Flicka, Ricka, Dicka and the Three Kittens were that kind of happy thrift store find!

The Snipp, Snap, Snurr series (first published in the U.S. in 1957) is about three adventurous little Swedish boys in, I would estimate, the 1930’s or ’40’s.  Although the books seem to be written with boys in mind, my daughters love them too.

The Flicka, Ricka, Dicka books (first U.S. publication was 1941) are about (you guessed it!) three adventurous little Swedish girls of that era.  Again, although targeted toward girls, my son loves these books as much as his sisters do.

The books are short, about 24 pages each.  Since each two page spread includes one page of text (in very large type) and a wonderful Maj Lindman 1950’s-style illustration on the facing page, there are really only 12 pages of text per book.  There are no chapters, but these are entirely suitable for beginning chapter book readers since they are so short and fairly simple:

Each book involves an innocent adventure with a little bit of minor drama (boys lost in the snow, a missing cat, etc.) that is, of course, always happily resolved.  None of it is too suspenseful or frightening which makes it appropriate for even the youngest new readers.

Also, if you don’t mind buying from Amazon, they are all part of the 4-for-3 promotion so you could get four of these wonderful Maj Lindman books for the price of three!

Our first two:

The others (those that are easily available in the U.S.):

Snipp, Snapp, Snurr -

Flicka, Ricka, Dicka –

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By Mom Unplugged, October 8, 2008 9:06 pm

When you have a child who is reading very well at an early age, it can sometimes be difficult to find books that are challenging enough for your young reader, yet innocent enough for a child who is not ready for more mature subject matter.

I have a few suggestions.  If you have not yet read Parts 1 and 2 of this series, then please head on over for some other ideas.

This week, I want to mention another lesser known set of books that we just adore.  These would appeal to boys as much as to girls.

I already reviewed the first book in the series a long time ago, so I feel a bit like I am cheating.  But things get buried in a blog and I MUST mention this series again because I think it is so wonderful!

This week’s suggestion is the “Noisy Village” series, by Astrid Lindgren (most commonly recognized as the author of the well-known Pippi Longstocking series).

I desperately wish there were more, but the series consists of only two chapter books: The Children of Noisy Village and Happy Times in Noisy Village.

There are also two short picture books (32 pages): Christmas in Noisy Village, and Springtime in Noisy Village (which is harder to come by).

The very charming Children of Noisy Village is actually one of the first chapter books I ever read out loud to my two oldest children.  We sat on the sofa in front of the fire on a boring, snowy Sunday and all three of us laughed out loud at the funny adventures of the Noisy Village children.  Much to my delight, I even found a bit of more subtle humor in the book that escaped my children.  These moments kept me wanting to turn the pages as much as my children did.

In case you missed my first review, the three Swedish farm houses that comprise “Noisy Village” are inhabited by a pack of mischievous children ages 9 to 11 (as well as a baby or two).  The tale is very convincingly narrated in the first person by 9 year-old Lisa.

The era of the book is never specified, but according to the “About the Author” section, Astrid Lindgren’s writing was greatly influenced by her childhood on a small Swedish farm.  Since she was born in 1931, that would probably place the setting of this book sometime around 1940.

None of these simple adventures are mean or malicious, but are completely innocent and charming.  I was also struck by the fact that the children never talk back, or act in a disrespectful manner to each other or their parents, as I find to be the case with many books of this genre nowadays.

If you read these books out loud, make sure you have plenty of time since you might be begged to read them cover to cover in one sitting.

For silent-reading I would place them on the same level of complexity as the Fairchild Family books by Rebecca Caudill that I reviewed last time.  That is, not suitable for beginners, but perhaps not quite as advanced as the The Little House series.

More details to help you determine the suitability for your child:  each of the two chapter books is about 120 pages long and is divided into 14 chapters.  Typeface is medium and there are quite a few sweet line drawing illustrations (by Ilon Wikland) scattered throughout the book.

The only picture book I have seen is the Christmas one.  I don’t like it as much as the chapter books.  There are more illustrations, and they are in bright colors.  Somehow, I prefer the subdued black and white line drawings of the originals.

Also, although the story is fun in the short Christmas book, there is a scene where one of the older boys pretends to be Santa and brings in the gifts. In my mind, this brought up the whole “is Santa real” question.  Fortunately however, it seemed to escape my children and we didn’t have to address that issue.  The Christmas chapter in The Children of Noisy Village was different and didn’t venture into such perilous territory.

Conclusion: I can’t recommend these chapter books enough, for both girls and boys!