Review: Oh, No, George!

Every dog--and every kid--knows that the best intentions can be blown to the wind in the face of temptation, and this is what the hapless hero of Oh, No, George! discovers, time and again.

" 'Yes,' says George 'I'll be very good.' I hope I'll be good, George thinks," when Harry steps out for a little while. But, "Oh, no, George!," the lure of a cake, a playful cat, and a garden bed prove too strong to resist. How will the poor, disgraced pup redeem himself?

Using a vibrant palette of reds and purples, author/illustrator Chris Haughton paints George and his antics in an abstract style that allows the characters expressions to shine through, eliciting both laughter and sympathy for this well-meaning pooch.

Haughton wrote a fantastic, well-illustrated, blog post about the process of writing and illustrating this book, from conception to layout. Click here to read all about it!

Picks from the Pros

The fine members of the New England Children's Booksellers Association (NECBA) read and review advance book galleys at a furious pace each season in an attempt to cover as many new children's books as possible. The reviews are shared with others via listserv so that we don't all have to read every book, as much as we might want to. These reviews are then gathered, analyzed, catagorized, and finalized into the Spring (or Fall) Review Project by one of the intrepid booksellers of NECBA--this year, the amazing Carol Chittenden of Eight Cousins book store in Falmouth, Mass.

For the Top 10 (or A Baker's Dozen), you can view the snazzy poster, or get the full list, with reviews, here. I'm excited to say that I have two reviews included in this list, including Katherine Hannigan's True...(sort of), which is one of the Top 10 (a.k.a. Top 13) picks of the Spring List! While I'm at it, I will throw my wholehearted support behind these other Top Picks, which I read and loved: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette (the Penderwick family is always a delight to spend time with, and I'm so happy that there are two more books to come), Okay for Now (Gary Schmidt is an amazing writer and he perfectly captured the humor and tragedy of Doug Swieteck's eighth grade year), Blink and Caution (a fast-paced novel about two teens forced to trust one another when they separately stumble into a very dangerous situation), and Delirium (falling in the dystopian fiction genre, envisioning a world in which falling in love has been outlawed).

Of course, in the immortal words of Levar Burton, "You don't have to take my word for it."

Book Review: We, The Drowned

We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen

This is a rare book in this age, and is all the more spellbinding for that. Spanning one hundred years in the life of a small town in Denmark, this extraordinary novel chronicles the lives of the people of Marstal who are all in some way bound to the sea. The story begins in the age of sail, and carries the reader through time to the day the Germans surrender to end World War Two. Each character introduced to the story is more powerful than the last, and events and places also come marvelously to life on every page of this nearly 700 page novel. Whether it is the life of schoolboys in Marstal, sailors unloading salt cod in Portugal, women managing their shipping companies, or a young Danish sailor looking for his father in the South Pacific, readers will be enthralled by these characters and their adventures as they come to life in this epic novel.

~ Linda

Review: Blueberry Girl

Blueberry Girl, by Neil Gaiman; illustrated by Charles Vess

First of all, I will admit that I'm biased: I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman, so I'm predisposed to like just about anything he writes. (Not everything, though. I'm not fond of many comic book/graphic novels, so after struggling through Preludes & Nocturnes, I gave up hope of reading the whole Sandman series.) That being said, I absolutely fell in love with Blueberry Girl the moment I held it in my hands.

Gaiman and Charles Vess have teamed up before, for a couple of the Sandman comics, and for an illustrated version of Stardust. They are a perfect combination for this project, which is a picture book version of a poem Gaiman wrote for his friend Tori Amos when she was pregnant with her daughter.

Blueberry Girl is written as a prayer to the Fates to give the child a life that will make her strong, wise, and beautiful in all ways. Gaiman's rhythmic rhyme  entreats the Fates (portrayed as all-seeing women who are as often fickle and mysterious as they are loving and generous in their ways)  to protect the girl: "Keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen, let her stay waking and wise," but also acknowledges the necessity of hard times: "Her joys must be high as her sorrows are deep," and "Help her to help herself, help her to stand, help her to lose and to find."

This sweet poem is gorgeously complemented by the illustrations. Vess has painted a series of adventurous young girls playing in wild settings, surrounded by plants and animals, sky and water. His illustrations are graceful and lovely, but also vibrant and full of movement. The birds, animals, and girls found here are ready to fly, run, swim, and jump off of the pages.

Together, Gaiman and Vess have created a book that is sure to be a treasured gift for expectant mothers, newborn daughters, and girls and women of all ages.