Adventure, family, heroes, time-travel: THE LOST CELT

THE LOST CELT written by A.E. Conran, Gosling Press, 2016,  is a treasure of an adventure story with heart, perfect for a middle-grade reader who also loves video games.

“The best kind of children’s adventure story …. Not to be missed.” Katherine Applegate, Winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal

THE LOST CELT is a page-turner hero’s tale full of mystery and adventure. This middle-grade book shows it how it is to be a fourth grade boy who is hooked on video games plus time-travel adventures. The reader follows Mikey’s quest to solve an amazing riddle that threatens his safety and survival.

The book also touches upon some of the current challenges that our veterans face. This deeper story layer never slows down the action nor becomes didactic, but introduces an awareness of harsh realities faced by many veterans of war – past and present. Full of heart, The Lost Celt, shines a gentle light on contemporary problems while the humor and mystery captures and holds the interest of young readers.

THE LOST CELT is full of family, fun, and heart, with a wonderful roller-coaster ride of page-turning action.

Paper Wishes

 

Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban

It is quiet and peaceful walking along the shore with Grandfather and Yujiin, Manami’s beloved dog. But the quiet won’t last.

Things are normal. Grandfather tells stories Manami knows well. They walk on the beach. Yujin cocks his head, perches beside them, licks their hands.

Things are not normal. Each day new ships arrive. Warships. Soldiers are everywhere.

It’s 1942, shortly after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Posters all over town announce the single word that will change the fate of Manami and her family: Evacuate. Soon, they will be forced to leave their home by the sea. They, and many of their neighbors, will be taken to Manzanar, one of 10 camps where Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during WW II.

Sepahban’s spare, poetic prose eloquently brings voice to the longing, resilience, tensions, and loss experienced by Manami and her close-knit family during this very difficult and tragic period of US history. I gulped down this hauntingly beautiful novel in one sitting. Don’t miss Lois Sepahban’s stunning middle grade debut.

Learn more about PAPER WISHES in this NYT REVIEW by Naomi Hirahara, author of the middle-grade novel, 1001 Cranes.

Share this LIST of recommended books on Japanese internment camps with students in grades 1-8.

Villainous villains and other dark thoughts

With a name like Dylan Snivels, who wouldn’t be a villain? A super-villain, at that. Seems baby Dylan comes from a long line of villains, but in Dylan the Villain, written and illustrated by K. G. Campbell (Viking 2016), it’s Dylan’s fight to remain on top in the villainous world of kindergarten that we care about. He wears a super-scary costume and has a super-villain laugh, and his doting mother and father boast that his super-villain inventions are “extra super-villainous.” But Dylan is no match for … Addison Van Malice!!addison (“She has blue hair! Who has blue hair?” Poor, clueless Dylan …)

Or is he?

“And yes, Dylan’s laugh was crazy.

But Addison Van Malice’s was bananas!”

This hilarious picture book will delight any child who is a villain or who holds villainous thoughts deep in his or her heart (and isn’t that every child??) and make the grown-ups who read it to them laugh out loud. Dylan and Addison battle to the finish, and a satisfying finish it is … or is it? As the last line in the book says, “THE END?”

We hope not.

The Dead Bird

If that isn’t a perfect title for a children’s picture book, I don’t know what is. What child can resist reading a picture book called THE DEAD BIRD? In this case, it’s a reissue of the classic written by Margaret Wise Brown published in 1938, and recently re-illustrated by Christian Robinson, (Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2016.) The dramatic thrill of discovering a dead bird on the ground and coming up with plans to bury it is a right of passage of childhood. (Far better than the body of a mouse, say, or something larger like a squirrel. Yuck.) How many adults can remember finding a baby bird after it had fallen out of its nest and rushing as professionally as paramedics to save it? A cardboard box, tissue for it to lie on, leaves for it to eat. A worm, maybe. Will it live? Sadly, not without its Mother. As we learned when we were young, to put a baby bird back in its nest after touching it with our hands would mean certain maternal rejection. It was so tragic, so deliciously dramatic.

Some negative comments have been made about this book – both when it was originally published and now with the re-issue – suggesting that it’s a stark handling of a delicate matter and too tough for children. I can only imagine they were written by people who don’t spend much time around real children. Children are warm-hearted, cold-blooded little humans. They take death in stride and Margaret Wise Brown knew exactly how to talk to them – without false sympathy and tell it to them straight. “The bird was dead when the children found it,” starts this wonderful, realistic story. They touch its body to see if its heart is beating. Alas, it’s not. “That was how they knew it was dead.” Even as they hold it, it starts to get cold and stiff. Imagine the thrill and horror children would feel when that happens! This is real life! “… cold dead and stone still with no heart beating.” At the risk of sounding callus, that sentence makes me laugh. I can hear a solemn child delivering those very words now.

It’s not that the children in the book are heartless. There are wonderful illustrations of their feelings. “They were very sorry the bird was dead …” dead birdbut they don’t waste time with crocodile tears. They understand that some ceremony is required and dress up appropriately, complete with animal face masks and butterfly wings, to show respect and bury it. They sprinkle flowers around the hole and sing a wandering song “Oh bird, you’re dead, you’ll never fly again …”

 

crying“Then they cried because their singing was so beautiful …”

Ha! Who says children can’t handle the death of a bird? That they should be denied the solemn tradition of burying it?

Eventually, of course, in a healthy childlike way, their lives move on. “And every day, until they forgot, they went and sang to their little dead bird …”

Until they forgot.

And rightly so.

 

All things GREEN

Here are some of my favorite books about nature and all things GREEN!

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Julie Morstad (Neal Porter Books, 2016)

Julie Fogliano is one of my favorite picture book authors. Her newest, just out this month, is a collection of poems that capture seasonal moments throughout the year. Here’s a peek at the first poem:

march 20

from a snow-covered tree

one bird singing

eat tweet poking

a tiny hole…

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook Press, 2012)

Enjoy this magical homage to green.

Song of the Water Boatman by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beckie Prange

Song of the Water Boatman by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beckie Prange (Houghton Mifflin, 2005)

Is there a more perfect way to celebrate “green” than to settle down with a collection of Joyce Sidman’s poems? From the flap copy: “From spring’s first thaw to autumn’s child, the world of the pond is a dramatic place. Through seemingly quiet, ponds are teeming with life and full of surprises.”

Why not start with “A Small Green Riddle” about the smallest of the flowering plants, or a poem about spring peepers titled, “Listen for Me”? Join Joyce as she celebrates the beauty and mystery of ponds and wetlands.

 

Weeds Find a Way by Cindy Jenson-Elliot, illustrated by Carolyn Fisher

Weeds Find a Way by Cindy Jenson-Elliot, illustrated by by Carolyn Fisher (Beach Lane Books, 2014)

“Weeds send their seeds into the world in wondrous ways: fluffing up like feathers and floating away on the wind.”

This lusciously illustrated ode to the beauty and tenacity of weeds will find its way into your heart! And don’t miss Cindy’s comprehensive TEACHER’S GUIDE, including lessons in science, informational narrative writing, poetry, art, and more!

 

Robin Yardi on The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez

 

It’s a pleasure to welcome Robin back to ReaderKidZ!

DIANNE: Hey, Robin! You’ve had quite a year. Your first picture book, They Just Know: Animal Instincts (Arbordale, 2015) came out last September, and now, we get to celebrate the publication of your first middle grade novel, The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez. Congratulations!

In both books animals are an integral piece of the story. They Just Know is nonfiction; The Midnight War is realistic fiction with – what might be called – a bit a magical realism. How did your approach to writing these stories differ? How was it the same?

ROBIN: First, thank you! It has been a pretty exciting year!

I approach writing my nonfiction and my realistic fiction (with its dash of magic realism) in pretty much the sameThe Midnight War of Mateo Martinez by Robin Yardi way. I have a spark of inspiration and then decide how to best convey that feeling in a book!

The blending of real world facts and quirky invention happens for me no matter what I’m writing. I am a reader of field guides and biographies, a backyard birder and bugger, but I am also a wonderer, a believer, and a fan of fantasy. The skunks in THE MIDNIGHT WAR OF MATEO MARTINEZ are inspired and informed by REAL spotted skunks. I spend a lot of time at my local natural history museum and have always loved these two little guys in our mammal hall: 

I researched them and found out that spotted skunks actually spray while maintaining a handstand. I would NEVER have been able to make that up. Knowing that TRUE fact makes imagining that two spotted skunks could ride off on a kid’s trike pretty easy!

As a writer, I am constantly comparing my knowledge and perceptions of reality with the possibilities presented by my imagination. Somewhere in the swirling space between fact and fiction is where I find meaning.

DIANNE: I loved this book for so many reasons. The voice, the way you handled that delicate, transition between the end of childhood and the beginnings of growing up, the way the premise – two skunks (!) stole Mateo’s trike – seemed completely and entirely possible. What was the hardest part of telling this story? What was your favorite part?

ROBIN: The most difficult part of telling this story was maintaining a balance between the need to push the narrative forward (Hey, where did those skunks go?), and the need to convey enough about Mateo’s life and growing up to make his midnight war meaningful. The book makes two promises in the opening chapter: you will embark upon a zany-madcap adventure AND you will learn about Mateo and his understanding of himself as a knight! Either of those two promises fulfilled would have made for a fun book, but pulling them both off at the same time, I hope, makes for something truly magical.

My favorite part is a bit of a spoiler. It involves a crosswalk button, a sacred promise, and a creative explicative (Geezer farts!). If you want the top-secret backstory on that scene, just click here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BBkvAzPtqaF/?taken-by=robineggwrites              

DIANNE: What’s your typical writing day? Any routines or preferences that make it easier to greet the blank page?

Robin Yardi aROBIN: Let’s talk about my IDEAL writing day!

I have NOTHING else on my plate but writing.

My husband takes the kids off to school and I scoot out of the house for a long walk. The walk, with music and trees and birds, is where SO many of my ideas come to me. And when I get home I’m perfectly primed to put those ideas into words. I live in California, and can do this almost everyday, have my magical walk in the sunshine of inspiration… but I DON’T do this everyday. There are some days when mad dashes to the grocery store, forgotten school lunches, Skype calls, and teaching at the museum take precedence. I’ve learned not to waste time worrying that all that other stuff will break my writing stride.

It DOES and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

DIANNE: What’s the one thing you’d like readers to take away from your books?

ROBIN: Sometimes life can be difficult to understand and there will always be things to fear, but TRYING to understand it, really LIVING it, can be full of honor and friendship and fantastic fun!

DIANNE: What’s coming up next for you?

ROBIN: I have a book release party planned (of course), but I put that off until April (actually I procrastinated planning it), and I’m offering free Skype visits to classrooms and libraries in March to help promote the book! Beyond that, I just handed over a new middle grade project to my agent.

It’s contemporary.

There are NO talking animals.

Just one great little gal who is obsessed with Wild West outlaws, because no matter how hard she tries to be good, she just keeps messing up! 

While I wait for feedback on my new manuscript I’m going to go for a walk, teach at the museum, and dash to get my kids from school. Somewhere, wherever I happen to be, I know a new idea will find me, because I’m always listening.

DIANNE: Thanks, Robin. Sounds like your newest idea about a great little gal obsessed with outlaws is a winner! Can’t wait to read it.

Be sure to check out these printable bookmarks and the Discussion Guide for The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez!

The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez

The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez by Robin Yardi (Carolrhoda Books, 2016) is the story of Mateo, a boy who thinks of himself as a knight with magical powers, his new best friend, Ashwin, and a couple of … shall we say… interesting skunks.

Mateo swears that the skunks not only stole his beloved, old trike, but actually ride the thing around the neighborhood while talking to one another. I know. I know. It sounds impossible, but I’m telling you… just read the book because Mateo’s voice is so earnest, so genuine, so believable that within the first few paragraphs, you, too, will have slipped into a magical world where Mateo and Ashwin are knights, skunks can talk, and the things that make life hard – like growing apart from your old best friend and letting go of some of your favorite memories of childhood – can and do work themselves out in a midnight war between raccoons and skunks and a couple of boys on a mission. Add in one sweet and lovely relationship between Mateo and his younger sister, and you’ve got a winning story, not to be missed!

From Publishers Weekly: “Picture book author Yardi (They Just Know: Animal Instincts), in her first novel, delivers an entertaining story of sibling loyalty, friendship struggles, and the sometimes vexing passage into adolescence. “

Be sure to check back Monday when the ReaderKidZ talk with Robin about her latest book!