ABAW August Supplement: Kids' Books

I have given up trying to keep track of everything the kids have read, but here are some notable items from the past month. 

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.  Dwight makes an origami Yoda. Yoda answers questions with special insight, even though his maker is clueless. How can this be?  And how does this whole middle-school thing work anyway?  Such a cool concept.  Be sure to check out the website for the book, and vote for which figure should star in the sequel.  

Zombiekins by Kevin Bolger, illus. Aaron Blecha.  Anytime we come across a book that all three read with enthusiasm and giggles, we know we have a keeper.  This is one of those books.  The story of a patched-together stuffed animal that comes to life when exposed to moonlight, Zombiekins is creepy good fun.  I still can’t get any of them to read Bunnicula.  This is Bolger’s second hit in our house. You might recall the Sonar obsession a few months ago with Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger.  

Palazzo Inverso by D. B. Johnson.  A stunningly beautiful picture book that can be read in circles, or all along the bottom pages, then flipped over and read backwards along all the top pages. You can read the entire book at the author’s website, but there is real joy to manipulating the book in your hands.  

The Widow’s Broom by Chris Van Allsburg.  If you’ve read any Van Allsburg picture books, you know the art is always spectacular, and this one is no exception.  

The Ultimate Origami Book by John Morin or Teach Yourself Origami by John Montroll.  We had a bit of a paper plane and origami extravaganza going on around here all summer.  Several origami books were dragged into and out of the house, but the Sonars tell me that these two were the best of the lot in terms of the clarity of the instructions and the number of figures they folded from each.

Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor.  Our bedtime-story routine goes like this: one kid chooses a picture book and a poem to read to the others, then I read a chapter out of a bigger book.  They can choose anything they want that they are able to read themselves.  We do not censor.  The choices they make sometimes open up an opportunity for conversation.  They usually choose a short poem, most frequently out of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein or The Rattlebag, edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.  But I also bring home poetry books from the library to mix it up a bit.  The Good Poems collection is full of great stuff, grouped thematically.  Imagine my surprise and giggles when a very earnest Sonar X7 recently read “Sonnet” by C. B. Trail out of the section called Lovers.    

The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell.  Each Sonar has read at least one book from this series, and I’m sure that they will all read more. Sonar X7 is the leader here, working his way through much of the series over the past two months.  The Winter Knights and Stormchaser were his favorite books this summer.   

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku. You might recognize Kaku from several television and radio appearances, most recently Discovery Science Channel’s Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible.  Sonar X10 brought this one home, and though some of the science is above his head, he flipped through and browsed and read significant portions of it before handing it off to dad, who read the whole thing.  Just so you know, the accepted definition of Anti-matter, matter moving backwards in time. You’re welcome.  

The Dragon Codices.  These are part of the Dragonlance universe of books.  The codices are a series of middle-grade books focusing on different colored dragons.  So far there are seven books, but ten are planned.  If you’re interested, begin with the Red Dragon Codex.  Bronze Dragon Codex was Sonar X5’s favorite book this summer. 

What are they reading now?

Sonar X10 has just finished The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville and has moved on to The Lost Years of Merlin by T. A. Barron.

Sonar X7 is reading The Hobbit.  

Sonar X5 just finished Zombiekins and hasn’t chosen another book yet.  

All-together we’re reading Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.  

When the kids go to school, a fantasy.

Next week, all of my kids will be in school for the first time.  Some parents might feel a bittersweet sense of melancholy and excitement over this milestone.  I’ll save you that cliche.  I’m excited for them, but mostly I’m totally thrilled to recapture some independence from my kids.  To reclaim an identity independent of being a mother.  People keep asking me what I’m going to do with my time when the kids are at school.  Generally I glare at them and say that I will do all the stuff I do now, just alone.  You know, the laundry and bread and groceries don’t leave when the kids do.  When I’m feeling friendly, I tell people that I’m going to write.  But there will be so much more than that. 

Here’s what I’m going to do.

I will eat whenever I want, or not at all.  I might drink beer with lunch.  I will write all day long.  I will listen to NPR and hear every story from beginning to end.  I will listen to loud music or no music at all.  I will spend all morning in the art museum in front of one painting, then write about it all afternoon.  I will sit on the beach in a sweater when it’s cold, writing and eating an apple.  I will run if I feel like it.  I will buy groceries at the speed I choose, with no arguments about cereal.  I will write about the produce manager singing in the deli.  I will read whole chapters and articles without interruption.  I will have tea with friends, uncensored.  Occasionally I will nap.  I will kidnap my spouse for lunch sometimes and make people gossip.  I will hang out at the library for hours, reading and writing.  I will plan and build and write and make.  I will figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up. 

Then I’ll be waiting with snacks when the kids rush through the door. 

ABAW June Edition

Summer vacation has blown apart all of our routines.  Everyone is reading. A lot. More than during school because of the long, hot afternoons.  I just have no idea what everyone else read during June.  

I read seven books in June. One for the kids, six for me.  All but one book this month were part of different series. 

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Sonar X10 tried to read this book a year or so ago, but quit after a few chapters.  When prodded, he admitted that he didn’t like the story because everyone in it seemed so mean.  When the kids decided we would read this story out loud together, I was curious about that sense of meanness.  There are several characters in the book that are mean bullies, but more than that, the story is full of complicated maneuvers and twists of detail that are both fun and occasionally confusing.  Out-loud reading gave us the chance to pause when things got tricky and sort them out as best we could.  The main character is Reynie, an exceptionally bright orphan. He is joined by three other gifted kids, each with his or her own talents.  Sticky remembers everything, but is often sad and lacks confidence.  Kate is physically clever, can move her body with precision and grace, is is exceptionally confident and daring.  Constance is supremely obstinate.  The four orphans are recruited by Mr. Benedict, a grandfatherly man who needs the children to help him infiltrate a school, which is the front for an insidious plot to take over the world.  The bad guy is Mr. Curtain, a brilliant egomaniac.  Constance names their team The Mysterious Benedict Society and they set off to thwart Mr. Curtain.  They use codes, hard work, diplomacy, and deception to infiltrate Mr. Curtain’s organization.  The team themselves are good kids, but they face snarky bullies and a bizarre school structure.  Ultimately they have to work together and trust each other and their individual talents to figure out just what Mr. Curtain is doing and how he’s doing it.  The kids really liked this book, and we look forward to the others in the series.  

His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire Book 1) by Naomi Novik

Napoleonic wars. Naval intrigue. Cannonade. Dragons! Patrick O’Brian with a dash of Pern. I admit that I don’t much like the stifling manners and sea-sweat & leather atmosphere of most Master-and-Commander-type books, but this book was fun.  The series is named for the main dragon, who is also my favorite character. Temeraire is a rare dragon, curious, charming, and on his way to being wise.  His captain, Will Laurence, an awkward transplant for His Majesty’s Navy, strikes me as a bit stiff and naive sometimes.  The closed society of the flying corps is strikingly different than society at large, with more progressive codes of behavior and opportunities for women.  I look forward to the second book, which brings in Chinese culture and the continued threat that Napoleon will try to take back his dragon. 

Grave Peril (Dresden Files Book 4) by Jim Butcher

This is my favorite in the series so far. The characters and world-building are settling-in comfortably, so the tropes of each book feel familiar.  Surprises continue to pop up. Dresden has a new sidekick, Michael, a knight of God.  Butcher uses Michael to introduce the nuances of power inherent in Faith.  Dresden’s personal history and background take a leap forward, as does the mythology of the world.  The Nevernever begins to play a  more direct role in the action.  Every volume in the series has grim moments, but this one was for me especially grim, as truly horrifying violence strikes very close to Dresden this time.  Dresden is frighteningly damaged in this story.  He’s cut down in several ways.  He is in peril, as the title suggests.  He balances close to the edge of something—insanity, darkness, blackest grief.  I’m curious how he will go forward. 

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson.  

I’m going to write about these three books in a separate post.  Know that they were very good, very complicated, and occupied a great deal of my time in June. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Book 1) by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium Book 2) by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium Book 3) by Stieg Larsson

Tinkers by Paul Harding

The Pulitzer Prize-Winner for Fiction this year. This is a quiet, contemplative, melancholy book.  The words convey the stark beauty and practical elegance of the final thoughts of a man in the days before his death.  Structurally, the book takes place in the final week of George’s life, as he lies dying in a bed in the living room of the house he built, surrounded by his family. The narrative encompasses George’s death, but also his contemplation of his father Howard’s death, and his grandfather’s death as well.  The prominent metaphor of the book is of a clock, connected to George because he has spent the last several decades fixing and rebuilding clocks.  Each piece of the story, like each piece of the clock, is disassembled in a quiet and orderly way, the ticking of the other clocks marking time.  The time of the narrative corresponds to the length of one winding of a clock-about eight days or 192 hours.  Mechanically speaking, in a clock, there is one point that marks the beginning of the clock’s cycles.  All other times on the clock are determined relative to that beginning point.  The lives of the men in the story are similarly marked by a profound point, a moment that is sealed in their memories, a moment they contemplate with cyclical certainty, against which all other experiences of their lives are measured.  A beautiful book that inspires quiet reflection on both the nature of the book (I reread several sections when I finished), and on the cycles of my own life. 

Warm Regards to Sonar X10 (double digits!)

Sonar X10, back when he was SonarX2monthsThe birthday kid! He has a lot more hair now.

ABAW May Edition

A.  Book.  A.  Week. (with echoes. echoes. echoes.)  We read bits of several different series this month. Also, slim notes this month. Winging it on memory.

Books I Read to Myself that Had Little or Nothing to Do With my Children

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman

Through touchingly frank stories about her own experience as a parent, Ayelet Waldman tries to get at what it takes to be a good mother in America.  The threshold is incredibly high.  In fact, it might be impossible.  Even when we work ourselves to the edge of mental breakdown, work as hard as we can to please everyone and do everything, someone still thinks we’re not doing it right.  By that unattainable standard, we are all bad mothers.  Waldman’s stories are funny, heartbreaking, honest, and rich with detail on topics such as learning disorders, depression, abortion, religion, breastfeeding, maternal boundaries, sex, and GUILT.  Waldman’s style and tone are engaging and familiar, and I found myself jotting down phrases and sentences here and there as I read.  My favorite:  “I always tell my kids that as soon as you have a secret, something about you that you are ashamed to have others find out, you have given other people the power to hurt you by exposing you.”  So wise.  I couldn’t help but reflect on my own experiences with motherhood as I read.  I admire Waldman for sharing these very personal experiences.  She’s a great writer and strikes me as smart and tough, and I would throw myself in with bad mothers like her any day. 

America’s Cheapest Family by Annette and Steve Economides

This was a straggler among the books I read for our personal finance checkup last month.  Unlike some of the others last month, this one was more oriented toward practical, everyday actions to improve family finances, plan for the future, teach our children how to handle money, and dig out of debt. 

Jane Slayre by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin

I resisted this one for a while.  Okay, for about a week.  I resisted mainly because I love the original.  It’s one of those books that is a sort of memory anchor for a particular personal transition in my life.  So I resisted, worried that this derivative would tamper with that memory anchor.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about.  Jane Slayre is fun.  It doesn’t have the musty atmospherics of the original, but Erwin exploits the spaces around Jane’s story in clever ways.  I preferred the innuendo-packed camp of Pride and Prejudice with Zombies, but I think I may be finished with the supernaturalization of the classics.  I wonder if there’d be any interest in rewriting classic horror and suspense novels to remove the supernatural elements?  No?  Didn’t really think so.

Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Book 1) by Charlaine Harris

Grave Surprise (Harper Connelly Book 2) by Charlaine Harris

An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Book 3) by Charlaine Harris

Harris has received notoriety as the creator of the Sookie Stackhouse universe, but she has other notable characters in her repertoire as well.  The main character of this series, Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager, and since then she’s had the uncanny ability to find dead bodies and know how they met their ends.  Of course, most people think she’s a fraud, but she and her step-brother Tolliver now travel the country trying to make a living with Harper’s talent.  They fall into creepy situations, dance around their own personal family mysteries (including a sister who disappeared many years before), and try to help the dead be found.  Whereas the Sookie Stackhouse books trade in camp, dark humor, and a delicious (pun intended) kind of vampire hypersexuality, the Harper Connelly books have a milder, more serious tone.  Harper is a more or less regular woman with a very irregular ability.  Though she occasionally meets other people with different types of extra-sensory perception, Harper’s world is not populated by vampires or supernatural monsters—only the occasional human one.  The books are well-plotted, with each volume working as an independent mystery, while still feeding the overall arcing story of the series.  There are no uber-villains, just crimes and mysteries to be solved, skeptical and downright mean people to be faced, and relationships to be negotiated.  My favorite character is the much-pierced and tattooed young man who shares some kind of intuitive awareness about people with his flamboyant grandmother.  All of Harris’s books grab me by the ears and don’t let go.  I always read them in a day or two, sneaking pages here and there throughout the day.  The fourth volume in the series is due out later this year.  Great beach/vacation reading. 

Storm Front (The Dresden Files Book 1) by Jim Butcher

Fool Moon (The Dresden Files Book 2) by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden is Chicago’s only openly practicing wizard.  His world looks a lot like ours, only there’s magic and monsters, and an enigmatic place called the Nevernever.  The tone of the books very much echoes hard-boiled detective fiction.  Like the Harper Connelly series, I can’t put these books down.  Well-plotted and well-paced, every chapter ends with a hook that won’t let me go.  I find Harry’s character charming without being smarmy.  There are moments of sarcasm and levity, but also some pretty grim scenes as well.  The series numbers at least twelve books so far, with more in the imaginings by the author.  Another great choice for beach/vacation reading.  

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

I loved this book right from the start.  A multi-perspective, multi-generational, multi-country story about Oscar de Leon, an American of Dominican descent.  A literary gamer-geek to the nth degree.  Diaz gives us an epic narrative that both educates on the history, politics, and culture of the Dominican Republic (with the aid of copious footnotes), and the personal history of the life of Oscar.  No matter how different he seems from everyone else in his family and neighborhood, Oscar is both the product and the victim of his cultural history.  I found each new section a bit jarring as I tried to identify the narrative voice, and become oriented to what part of the story was unfolding.  That disorientation, I think, added to the sense of confusion and alienation that many of the characters feel.  If I neither belong here, nor there, where are my anchors?  Oscar’s sister Lola is a compelling character, but in the end, the sections narrated by Oscar’s friend and Lola’s boyfriend, Yunior, were the most thought-provoking for me.  Yunior and Oscar shared more similarities than Yunior is willing to admit, though they are dramatically different in terms of their demonstrations of masculinity and intellectualism.  I wonder in the final pages of the book whether Yunior is telling the story of Oscar as a way of understanding himself better, whether Oscar is a sort of manifestation of Yunior’s own personal struggle.  Diaz won many awards for this book, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 

Books I read Out Loud to the Children

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve

We loved this book.  Polly Peabody lives on a magical rhubarb farm where it rains at precisely one o’clock every Monday afternoon.  Some people think there is a logical and scientific explanation to the rain and the chocolate rhubarb, but when a life-threatening illness strikes Polly’s brother and the rain suddenly quits, Polly begins to discover for herself what makes the farm tick.  Full of literary allusions (a central trope involves a volume of Emerson), this book resonated with our young to middle-grade kids without being condescending.  The emotions portrayed are raw and honest.  Polly explains what happened and how it felt when her grandmother died, and is faced with the possibility that her brother will die as well.  Polly feels alienated in her new middle-school and has a hard time making friends.  Van Cleve creatively finds ways for Polly to act-independently, navigating a confusing set of realistic family relationships and one perceived betrayal as well as the mystery of the farm.  A really charming book about self-discovery that demonstrates that the magic inside is what really moves the world.  

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

The kids loved this one almost as much as I did.  Check out my comments on it from last September here.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

We laughed out loud at several points in this book.  What happens when a  modern writer tells an old-fashioned story about four old-fashioned children with atrocious parents?  Throw in a charming and capable Nanny, a lonely, mourning industrialist, and an abandoned baby, along with a fair dose of mischievousness, kid-humor, and an extended candy bar joke, and you get The Willoughbys.  Another smart, snappy book full of literary allusions, complete with a cheeky glossary of all the big words, and an annotated bibliography of other old-fashioned stories that inspired Lowry.  Deeelightful.  The kids quote this one extensively, but if I share their favorite quotes with you, you’ll think they’re crude.  Or you might just think they’re giggly kids.  

Sonar X9 Read a few things too!!

The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Book 1) by Michael Scott

The Magician (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Book 2) by Michael Scott

Attack of the 50 foot Cupid (Franny K. Stein Book 2) by Jim Benton

Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost (Ghosthunters 1) by Cornelia Funke

Ghosthunters and the Gruesome Invincible Lightning Ghost (Ghosthunters 2) by Cornelia Funke

What We’re Reading Now

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson  (me) This is the second try for me.  I quit after fifty pages the first time.  I was assured it will get better, and it did.  Nearly halfway through now, and I must know what happens.  

The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel Book 3) by Michael Scott (Sonar X9)  Won’t call him that much longer. Last time, in fact.

The Mysterious Benedict Society (MBS Book 1) by Trenton Lee Stewart (out loud)  A fun book so far, full of puzzles.  Fun to read a story about gifted kids to gifted kids.  Every few pages we stop because they want to talk about something.