Can't post. Reading.

As I did last year, I'm going to take a brief summer hiatus and catch up on some excellent reading, beach and otherwise. See you in August.

[Image found on The Book Lady's Blog]

Beauty Queens: Review Haiku

Harsh critique of
corporate myths of womanhood in
kick-ass Libba style.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Scholastic, 2011, 400 pages.

Nation: Review Haiku

Survival, religion,
colonialism,
and Galactica.*

Nation by Terry Pratchett. Harper, 2008, 367 pages.

* What? Just me?

2007 Year-End Random Roundup

I heart year-end lists, and God knows, this is the season for them. If I bought every magazine that enticed me with the promise of The Best and Worst [Insert Category Here] 2007, I would have . . . a lot of magazines. So I figured it couldn't hurt to do my own.

Since I am a huge slagass, however, there is neither rhyme nor reason to my list, nor a tidy symmetry of best and worst, nor even a semblance of order to the number of items. (I am also baffled by Blogger's concepts of "page design" and "image placement," so forgive me if this post looks all monkey on your screen.)

Enjoy.

The Emilyreads 2007 Year-End List of Things

Favorite new picture book
What Happens on Wednesdays by Emily Jenkins

Most bizarrely awesome/awesomely bizarre mystery
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann


Best designed/design-y picture book
A Good Day by Kevin Henkes


Best jacket, possibly EVER
Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaelis



Best uncategorizable books
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick






Books that had the greatest impact on my psyche
Life As We Knew It and the dead & the gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
(see woodstove, obsession with and moon, sinister cast seen in all images thereof)




Favorite new middle grade/YA novels
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker


From The LIST
Best re-read (adult)
To Kill a Mockingbird


Best re-read (children's/YA)
Charlotte's Web

Most disappointing classic
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Most enjoyed classic
Brave New World

The Dead and the Gone: Review Non-Haiku

(with apologies to William Carlos Williams and Joyce Sidman)

This is just to say

I have read Susan Beth Pfeffer's The Dead and the Gone
which most of you
can't get your hands on yet

Forgive me
it was amazing
so bleak
and so rich

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Harcourt, 2008, 320 pages.

Lord of the Flies: Review Haiku

"KILL THE PIG!" Would you?
Innocence lost, unspooled, with
seductive horror.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Faber & Faber, 1954, 192 pages. Listened to on a Playaway device.

#21 on The LIST.

Charlotte's Web: Review Haiku

"No one was with her
when she died." I'm sorry -- I
can't see the keyboard . . .

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. Harper, 1952, 184 pages.

#12 on The LIST.

A View from Saturday: Review Haiku

Idealized, maybe;
but rich and warm as a fresh
cuppa tea. Kind Souls.

A View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. Aladdin, 1998, 176 pages.

#5 on The LIST.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Review Haiku

Yep, it still makes me
cry: "Miss Jean Louise, stand up.
Your father's passin'."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Harper, 1960, 336 pages.

#1 on The LIST.

Life As We Knew It: Review Haiku

The man in the moon
makes a house call. Who'll survive
the apocalypse?

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Harcourt, 2006, 337 pages.

Clementine: Review Haiku

Fuse loved it; me too!
My inner Ramona thrills.
Laugh-out-loud, spot-on.

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. Hyperion, 2006, 131 pages.

An Abundance of Katherines: Review Haiku

Love by the numbers
Plus anagrams, tampon strings
A witty YA.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Dutton, 2006, 256 pages.

Dairy Queen

At last! A book everybody else likes that I like, too (unlike, say, King Dork).

I will spare the plot summary and focus simply on what I liked: namely, DJ herself. Forthright, smart (in her own way), and funny (in her own way), she could write her grocery list for 200 pages and I'd still want to read it. I'm shocked that the author doesn't seem to have any firsthand experience in the upper Midwest, because the setting rang very true to me. (Granted, I did not grow up in farm country per se, but the whole concept of long-standing/suffocating families and ambitions of limited scope, for good or ill, were familiar and nicely presented.)

Murdock touches on heavy topics -- anger, repression, sexuality -- without losing sight of DJ or ever taking us out of her purview. On the last topic, I was impressed with the way Amber's sexuality was handled: perhaps not as full-on positively as some might like, but quite realistically, I thought, and with no malice on DJ's part.

A great girl, great story, great book. Would like to see this on the Printz list.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (HMCo, 2006, 275 pages).

Mo Willems, I love you

Those of you who have small children should already know Mo. The two-time Caldecott-Honor winner now has nine (?I think) books to his credit, each a gem. The Munchkin loves her some Pigeon and Bunny. To wit:

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (Hyperion, 2003) is Mo's Caldecott Honor debut. The title says it all: this is a brilliantly interactive picture book starring an irrepressible pigeon who reeaaaalllly wants to drive the bus. Won't you let him? Curiously, although Miss Munch knows, loves, and recites this book, she has never let loose with one of those big "NOOOOO!"s that the author and publisher seem to expect from their audience.

The first sequel, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! (Hyperion, 2004) is a lesser work, but has its moments of brilliance as well. La Munch frequently asserts, "Dat PIGEON hot dog!"

The second sequel, and Mo's latest, is Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! (Hyperion, 2006). Following the format of the other two, the reader sees Pigeon (clutching his own Knuffle Bunny, see below) resisting bedtime with all the force and persuasion of a good little toddler. Replacing Pigeon's standard climactic tantrum with a room-filling yawn is a stroke of genius.

Last but not least in the Mo Hall of Fame is one of last year's Caldecott Honors, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (Hyperion, 2004). It took the Munchkin a little while to warm up to this one, but once she did, she was hooked. Knuffle Bunny is a slice-of-life tale of one girl, one stuffed bunny, and one ill-fated trip to the laundromat. The language and action is pitch-perfect (find me a better example of "going boneless," I dare you), and the resolution, though predictable, is heart-warming.

A word of caution: These books are not for the shy parent. Mo's background is in animation (he's a former writer for Sesame Street, among others), and one must adopt a certain theatricality to get the most out of these books. But they're worth it.

Mo is also a certified Hot Man of Children's Literature.

Also by Mo:
The Pigeon Loves Things That Go! (Hyperion, 2005, board book)
The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! (Hyperion, 2005, board book)
Time to Pee! (Hyperion, 2003)
Time to Say Please! (Hyperion, 2005)
Leonardo, the Terrible Monster (Hyperion, 2006)