Recent Read: Through the Woods

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

In one story from Emily Carroll’s Gothic collection of graphic short stories, a new bride arrives at a manor house that is now hers. At night she hears a sad song:

"I married my love in the springtime, but by summer he'd locked me away. He'd murdered me dead by the autumn, and by winter I was naught but decay. It's so cold where I am and so lonely but in loneliness I will remain, unloved, unavenged, and forgotten, until I am whole once again." 

She goes searching through the house--in the walls, under the floor. And this is what she finds:

It gets creepier, as do all of Emily Carroll’s stories in this haunting collection. The beautiful illustrations, as you can see, contribute to the eerie tone. I half expected some ghostly hand to reach out and pull me into its depths. A must for fans of horror and another great read for Halloween.

Recent Read: Witches

Witches: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer

Ever wonder what really happened in Salem all those years ago? I realized that my knowledge of it was limited to (1) The Crucible and (2) the offhand comment my high school history teacher made about the possibility they were all high. Rosalyn Schanzer takes us through the blow-by-blow of what we know happened—the fits, the accusations, the hysteria, the biased judges, the tragic executions.

Spoiler alert, but I imagine many of your questions will go unanswered, as mine were. What was fake and what was real? What was honest and what was false? What were the motivations? Schanzer gives an overview of the various theories scholars have come up with to answer these questions, but we don’t really know. Still, this makes for a very interesting read, and helped me distinguish between tales and reality.

And then there are the illustrations. Fantastic! Dynamic black and white scratch board illustrations, with little red accents add real pizzazz.

Recent Read: The Family Romanov

The Family Romanov by Candance Fleming

Tsar Nicholas II: well-intentioned, but ill-prepared and oblivious ruler of 130 million people and 1/3 of the land on Earth, with a family wealth estimated to be worth $45 billion.

Empress Alexandra: slightly reclusive, mystic obsessed, German-born wife to Nicholas.

The Romanov children: four lovely daughters, and one hemophiliac heir, Alexei.

The Russian people: 84% peasants living in crude huts without electricity, chimneys, or real furniture, with barely food enough to eat. 10.5% urban workers, enduring dangerous working conditions and long hours, and making only enough money to rent a small tenement without water, kitchen, or toilet. 

With Alexei’s hidden condition, Nicholas’s passive nature, and Alexandra’s penchant for mysticism, the family was destined for trouble from the beginning. Add to that workers’ discontent, miserable peasants, the toxic monk Rasputin, the rise of communism (and Lenin), World War I, and revolution, and doom seems inevitable.

Author Candace Fleming expertly weaves together many different threads to form a complex, tragic tapestry of Russia and its last royal family. She focuses on the Romanov family, providing us a thorough and colorful portrait of the Romanovs—quirks and all (Alexandra personally hung over 700 icons on the walls of the imperial bedroom).

The story of the Romanovs cannot be divorced from the historical and political events of their time, and so their lives and decisions are always included in the larger context of Russia and its people (and problems). To provide an even richer understanding of the time, Fleming includes first-hand accounts of life in Russia at the time from the viewpoint of individual Russians and the occasional foreign journalist.

As readable as any good novel, this nonfiction book is excellent on all fronts. Fascinating and compelling from cover to cover.

Picture This: Have You Seen My Dragon?

Have You Seen My Dragon? by Steve Light

A boy has lost his dragon and traipses across New York City in search of him.

Along the way, the boy finds many other things: 2 hot dogs ("maybe he got hungry and stopped for a hot dog"), 3 buses ("or perhaps he went downtown on the bus"), 4 sailboats ("it's possible he went for a swim), etc. In every case, the boy is correct. We can see the dragon eating a hot dog and going for a swim, but the boy doesn't see. Drawn in bold pen and ink, each spread is black and white, with the counted objects in bright colors. Meanwhile, the dragon blends right in. The endpages feature a map of where the boy and his dragon have been. Lots of fun, with great illustrations.

Picture This: Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine

Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter

Queen Victoria loves to swim, but can't because it would be scandalous to see more of the queen than her hands and face. Fortunately, her husband comes up with a solution.

Mary Carpenter's illustrations are a bustle of activity, featuring the royal couple's nine children in nearly every spread. But what sets this picture book apart is Whelan's rhythm, rhyme, and diction. Whelan is creative, colorful and funny with her choice of words.

The queen sighed a sigh. "I'll give up the notion.
I'll never be allowed to enter the ocean.
For how can I swim if I wear all my clothes,
my petticoats and dresses, my shoes and my hose?
They'd get drippy and slushy and soggy and sodden,
and down I would sink right to the bottom.

Add to that the true story of Prince Albert's invention of the bathing machine (a dressing room that can be wheeled into the ocean so the queen can go into the water without showing so much as toe to the public during the transition), and you have this this charmer.

Recent Read: Better Nate Than Ever

Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle

The ultimate dream-come-true for Nate Foster would be to star in a Broadway musical, which is why he’s leaving sports-obsessed podunk Jankberg, Pennsylvania to try out for E. T.: The Musical in New York City. He’s got his mother’s credit card, his lucky rabbit’s foot, a New York-savvy catch phrase (“The A train is running local today, what a hassle”), a greyhound bus ticket, and a best friend at home cheering him on. But New York is full of all sorts of surprises, and the experience isn’t quite what Nate had imagined.

I laughed throughout this heartwarming novel. Seeing New York, Broadway auditions, even Applebee's through Nate’s eyes was so much fun. He’s innocent, earnest, funny, and oh so loveable. As an example, he and his best friend, Libby, shout the names of Broadway flops instead of swearing (“Holy Dance of the Vampires!”).

Not too surprisingly, short, chubby, always singing Nate has a history of being bullied, called names and accused of being gay—something which he himself says he’s not even old enough to really know about yet. When he reaches New York City, it doesn’t live up to every expectation, but he still feels as though he’s found a place where he might belong. He faces obstacles and disasters, but almost nothing can get this indefatigable thirteen-year-old down. His warmth and excitement win over our hearts (and maybe some others, too).

It would seem that Federle was inspired and influenced by his own life. He himself moved to NYC as a teenager to pursue a career on Broadway. He performed in The Little Mermaid and Gypsy, among others. At thirty, he was working as an associate choreographer on Billy Elliott, constantly auditioning boys whose voices hadn’t changed yet, when he saw a pudgy, freckled boy, clutching a rabbit’s foot on stage. That sparked an idea for a story, and many of his experiences working on Billy Elliott provided material for Better Nate Than Ever.

One more note: I listened to the audiobook of Better Nate Than Ever which was read by the author Tim Federle. He was a delight as a reader. This is a must for theatre kids in particular.



Also, if you want to get a sense of his humor, don't miss his twitter.

Picture This: Princess Sparkle-Heart Gets a Makeover

Princess Sparkle-Heart Gets a Makeover by Josh Schneider

Amelia and her dog love to play...until Amelia gets Princess Sparkle-Heart. Amelia and Princess Sparkle-Heart do everything together...until disaster (should I say jealousy) strikes...

It's true. The dog rips the doll to shreds. Amelia's devastated. But mom says she can fix her. As the reader watches blissful scenes of Amelia and Princess Sparkle-Heart, the dog is always there in background, giving them the evil eye, a "grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" often spanning the two page spread. But perhaps the funniest (and most shocking part of all is the renewed Princess Sparkle-Heart. You'll have to read it yourself to see what I mean.

Isn't this fantastic?