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Ameritopia by Mark R Levin Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780670887606 Harley Altmyer, a 19-year-old living in the Pennsylvania backwoods, works two jobs to support himself and three younger sisters, all orphaned when their mother is imprisoned for killing their abusive father. Harley is frustrated by his dreary, duty-filled life, resentful that his best friend is away at college and has escaped the dead-end existence of the small town. He resents his mother, who, albeit in prison, has escaped the relentless demands of a seriously dysfunctional family: oversexed Amber searches for love in every boy she meets; Misty wears as a bracelet the collar of her pet cat who died in mysterious circumstances; and Jody, only recently recovered from total withdrawal, compulsively makes to-do lists. Harley's affair with Callie Mercer, the mother of Jody's friend, marks his sexual and emotional awakening, but it won't permit an escape from family secrets. He regularly visits a state-funded psychologist but responds with sarcasm, indifference, and denial until a family crisis rewakens memories that lead him to a truth more awful than the apparent reality of his miserable life. Harley's first-person account of the deterioration of his family and his own slow-motion meltdown is harrowing. O'Dell, a native of western Pennsylvania, renders finely detailed characters and settings in a desperate and failed mining town. This is a riveting first novel of violence, incest, murder, and madness. --Vanessa Bush Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780670887606 Nineteen-year-old Harley is left to rear his three younger sisters after their mother is imprisoned for murdering their abusive father in this searing, hardscrabble Party of Five set in Pennsylvania mining country. Doubly resentful because his best friend is off at college, Harley spends his days slogging as a Shop Rite bagger and appliance-shop delivery person, coming home to cold cereal dinners prepared by six-year-old Jody. Harley is bitter about having to take over for his motherÄ"she still had us kids but we didn't have her"Äand he can't shake the feeling that she prefers prison to their home life; a mystery lingers around his father's death. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Amber is sleeping her way through the town's teenage boys and flaunting her body in front of Harley; middle sister Misty, once her father's favorite and his hunting companion, practices shooting. Desperate for relief, Harley finds solace in rough but exhilarating encounters with married Callie Mercer, little Jody's best friend's mother, losing his virginity to her on a muddy creek bank and reveling in her sophisticated, sensitive words. But memories are stirring in his subconscious, and erotic dreams of the Virgin Mary metamorphose into nightmarish sexual visions. In his sessions with a court-appointed therapist, Harley edges closer to understanding his family's twisted dynamic, but it is only when the horrors of the present begin to catch up with those of the past that a series of shattering truths are revealed. By then it is too late for Harley to save everyone he loves, but in sacrificing himself, however hopelessly, he introduces a note of grace. O'Dell's scorching tale touches on all the tropes of dysfunctional families, but her characters fight free of stereotypes, taking on an angry, authentic glow. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780670887606 Harley Altmyer might be the only 20-year-old virgin in the small Pennsylvania coal town where he lives, but for sure he is the only one with custody of three younger siblingsÄa responsibility inherited when his mother killed his abusive father and went to prison for life. While he works two dead-end jobs to support his sisters, Harley lusts after a married neighbor, Callie Mercer. When Callie indicates that she's attracted to him, too, the resulting sexual fireworks set off a series of events with tragic consequences. First novelist O'Dell, a trained journalist and a former exotic dancer, knows a lot about raging hormones, and she clearly has a good deal of affection for Harley (which the reader will share). She is less comfortable, however, with the demands of plot and character development. The last third of the novel is unnecessarily convoluted and rests uneasily on characters who are too sketchy to support the pieces of plot that they're carrying. Once O'Dell learns how to harness the runaway energy she brings to fiction, she'll be a writer to read; until then, only large public libraries should consider this for purchase.ÄNancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780679450047 Virtuoso Chabon takes intense delight in the practice of his art, and never has his joy been more palpable than in this funny and profound tale of exile, love, and magic. In his last novel, The Wonder Boys (1995), Chabon explored the shadow side of literary aspirations. Here he revels in the crass yet inventive and comforting world of comic-book superheroes, those masked men with mysterious powers who were born in the wake of the Great Depression and who carried their fans through the horrors of war with the guarantee that good always triumphs over evil. In a luxuriant narrative that is jubilant and purposeful, graceful and complex, hilarious and enrapturing, Chabon chronicles the fantastic adventures of two Jewish cousins, one American, one Czech. It's 1939 and Brooklynite Sammy Klayman dreams of making it big in the nascent world of comic books. Joseph Kavalier has never seen a comic book, but he is an accomplished artist versed in the "autoliberation" techniques of his hero, Harry Houdini. He effects a great (and surreal) escape from the Nazis, arrives in New York, and joins forces with Sammy. They rapidly create the Escapist, the first of many superheroes emblematic of their temperaments and predicaments, and attain phenomenal success. But Joe, tormented by guilt and grief for his lost family, abruptly joins the navy, abandoning Sammy, their work, and his lover, the marvelous artist and free spirit Rosa, who, unbeknownst to him, is carrying his child. As Chabon--equally adept at atmosphere, action, dialogue, and cultural commentary--whips up wildly imaginative escapades punctuated by schtick that rivals the best of Jewish comedians, he plumbs the depths of the human heart and celebrates the healing properties of escapism and the "genuine magic of art" with exuberance and wisdom. --Donna Seaman Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780679450047 This epic novel about the glory years of the American comic book (1939-1954) fulfills all the promise of Chabon's two earlier novels (The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; Wonder Boys) and two collections of short stories (A Model World; Werewolves in Their Youth), and nearly equals them all together in number of pages. Chabon's prodigious gifts for language, humor and wonderment come to full maturity in this fictional history of the legendary partnership between Sammy Klayman and Josef Kavalier, cousins and creators of the prewar masked comic book hero, the Escapist. Sammy is a gifted inventor of characters and situations who dreams "the usual Brooklyn dreams of flight and transformation and escape." His contribution to the superhero's alter ego, Tom Mayflower, is his own stick legs, a legacy of childhood polio. Joe Kavalier, a former Prague art student, arrives in Brooklyn by way of Siberia, Japan and San Francisco. This improbable route marks only the first in a lifetime of timely escapes. Denied exit from Nazi Czechoslovakia with the visa his family sold its fortune to buy him, Joe, a disciple of Houdini, enlists the aid of his former teacher, the celebrated stage illusionist Bernard Kornblum, in a more desperate escape: crouched inside the coffin transporting Prague's famous golem, Rabbi Loew's miraculous automaton, to the safety of exile in Lithuania. This melodramatic getawayDalmost foiled when the Nazi officer inspecting the corpse decides the suit it's wearing is too fine to buryDis presented with the careful attention to detail of a true-life adventure. Chabon heightens realism through a series of inspired matches: the Escapist, who roams the globe "coming to the aid of those who languish in tyranny's chains," with Joe's powerlessness to rescue his family from Prague; Kavalier & Clay's Empire City with New York City in the early 1940s; and the comic industry's "avidity of unburdening America's youth of the oppressive national mantle of tedium, ten cents at a time," with this fledgling art form's ability to gratify "the lust for power and the gaudy sartorial taste of a race of powerless people with no leave to dress themselves." Well researched and deeply felt, this rich, expansive and hugely satisfying novel will delight a wide range of readers. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780679450047 Joe Kavalier, a young artist and magician, escapes pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, making his way to the home of Sam Clay, his Brooklyn cousin. Sam dreams of making it big in the emerging comic-book trade and sees Joe as the person to help him. As the cousins gain success with their masked superhero, the Escapist, Joe banks his earnings to bring his family from Prague and falls in love with Rosa Saks, daughter of an art dealer. But when the ship carrying his brother to America is torpedoed, Joe joins the navy and is posted to Antarctica. Half-insane, he returns to a wandering life that leads back to Rosa and now husband Sam in 1953. What results is a novel of love and loss, sorrow and wonder, and the ability of art to transcend the "harsh physics" of this world and gives us a magical glimpse of "the mysterious spirit world beyond." Recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/00.]DLawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Tibaldo and the Hole in the Calendar by Abner Shimony School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780387949352 YA?In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, following the advice of astronomer Christopher Clavius, decided to drop 10 days from the calendar that was currently in use throughout the world. Hence, Thursday, October 4, 1582 (Julian), would be followed by Friday, October 15, 1582 (Gregorian). Shimony charmingly describes these events through the eyes of Tibaldo Bondi, a student at the prestigious St. Joseph-in-the-Corner school in Bologna. Since he is about to lose his 12th birthday in the reorganization of the calendar, the determined and astute young man sets about finding a solution to his dilemma. Weaving fictitious characters and events into actual occurrences, the author vividly brings 16th-century Italy to life. Readers learn about the tribulations of school children during this era (try multiplying 488 by 877 in Roman numerals) as well as the scientific understandings of Clavius and Copernicus. The book is illustrated with drawings that reflect the art of the period. The tale is followed by two readable astronomy lectures, one about the seasons and the other about the appearance of stars from various locations on Earth, which will have particular appeal to readers whose scientific curiosity has been piqued by Tibaldo's story.?Carol DeAngelo, Garcia Consulting Inc., EPA Headquarters, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Erased by a Tornado! by Jessica Rudolph School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9781936087525 Gr 4-6-Students with a penchant for the extreme will relish the dangerous situations described in these fact-filled works, whose first-person accounts add nail-biting immediacy. The books describe some of the same threats as those covered in ABDO's "Weather Watchers," but here the pitch of the content and the appetite of the audience are a perfect match. While focusing on one survivor's experiences before, during, and after events such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and Chicago's deadly 1995 heat wave, the books also relate the history of the event and similar disasters, and scientific cause and effect. While the authors don't gloss over human suffering, including the poverty that exacerbated tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, they refrain from political commentary. Large, clear color photographs and effective scientific diagrams add to the successful presentations. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Punkzilla by Rapp, Adam School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780763630317 Gr 9 Up-Fourteen-year-old Jamie-street name Punkzilla-is AWOL from military school. He's already lived hand to mouth in a west coast city, stealing iPods, doing cheap drugs, and getting the occasional joyless hand job. Now he is headed to Memphis where his oldest brother, Peter, a gay playwright, is dying from cancer. His story is told through his letters to Peter as he hitchhikes across the country, written in the backseats of cars, under a tree where a man hanged himself, and ultimately in retrospect when he reaches his journey's sad end. Along the way he meets the good, the bad, and the skewed, including a girl who gives him his first experience of loving intercourse. Like his brother, punk boy Jamie will never fulfill the expectations of his rigidly conservative father or meet the needs of his ineffectual mother. As in 33 Snowfish (Candlewick, 2003), Rapp pulls no punches in depicting the degrading life of children on the streets. The choice to live free from parents and school comes at a cost-to survive Jamie becomes both exploited and exploiter. But there is more here than the sordid streets. Impulsive and naive as he may be, Jamie is struggling for something that just might come close to integrity. Readers can see the good in him and even in his infuriating parents. In the end he finds shelter with his brother's lover, who opens the door to the creative life, a more intelligent and focused world-outside-the-box where Jamie just might find what he needs. Exquisitely true in its raw but vulnerable voice, this story is a compulsive read.-Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780763630317 Fourteen year-old Jamie ("Punkzilla") is coming down from his latest hit of meth and traveling across country by bus to see his brother P, a Memphis playwright dying of cancer. Jamie's letters to P tell the story of his journey and his recent turn as a military school dropout. Why It Is for Us: In the hands of this gifted stylist, Punkzilla (so named for his love of punk music) opens the reader's eyes to a seedier America. The world he views and the people he meets along the way lend this epistolary stream-of-consciousness novel an importance that extends beyond his recent personal troubles. Rapp, a playwright himself, does not waste a word. For fans of Kerouac's On the Road. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780763630317 *Starred Review* The 61-word run-on sentence on the first page sets the stream-of-consciousness tone, and then two pages later there's hand jobs and meth yep, it's a Rapp novel, all right. And the quality hits the high standards of 33 Snowfish (2003) and Under the Wolf, Under the Dog (2004). Fourteen-year-old Jamie (aka Punkzilla ) has gone AWOL from his military school, is off his meds, and is making his way from Oregon to Memphis, where his older brother, Peter, is dying of cancer. Though he is thankful to leave behind his career as an iPod thief, life on the road doesn't seem much better: his fellow Greyhound riders are frightening, he gets jumped in a roadside restroom, and his androgynous features land him in increasingly disturbing situations. You expect such bleakness from Rapp, but it's the flashes of humor and optimism that exhilarate. Beneath a surface of disease, despair, and disfigurements, Rapp's road trip is populated with good souls who, despite their circumstances, make significant sacrifices to help Punkzilla. Rapp constructs the book as a series of unsent letters to Peter and punctuates them with correspondence, some old enough to be heartbreakingly out of date, that Punkzilla has received from friends and family. This is devastating stuff, but breathtaking, too.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2009 Booklist Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780763630317 At 14, pot-smoking, DVD player-stealing Jamie is no angel (though his androgynous good looks get him plenty of attention). He is sent to military school, but soon goes AWOL, spending some rough months in Portland, Ore. (mugging joggers, trying meth), before heading to Memphis by Greyhound bus to visit his gay older brother, Peter, who is dying of cancer. Rapp (Under the Wolf, Under the Dog) tells the story through Jamie's unsent letters, with additional letters from relatives and friends giving more background and context. Jamie, who has ADD, details every step (being taken advantage of sexually, getting jumped, befriending a female-to-male transsexual, losing his virginity) in expletive-filled, stream-of-consciousness narration with insights into seedy roadside America ("I think that as a general rule lonely people give other lonely people money a lot") and his own situation. Whether Jamie will survive his bad luck and make it to Memphis in time gives the story tension, but while Jamie leaves much behind each day on the road, little is found. The teenager's singular voice and observations make for an immersive reading experience. Ages 14-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends by Wong Herbert Yee School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780547152226 PreS-Gr 2-Mouse and Mole, who are reminiscent of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad, share an interest in birds. It's spring, when the birds come back, so they set out with their binoculars, sketch pad, and crayons to find them. When they attempt to draw them, the startled creatures fly away, and the plot builds to a hilarious climax when the two friends improvise a plan to attract them. Simple text and italicized words as Mouse and Mole identify the birds and mimic their songs are closely supported by small, colorful illustrations. The sunlit, warm days of the season are suggested by the light pastel, water-based gouache illustrations of the cartoonlike characters and setting details that are lightly outlined by lithograph pencil. This adventure incorporates themes of cooperation, teamwork, and achieving a common goal through combined creativity and talents. The themes and inherent lessons will resonate with primary-grade students, who will flock to this easy reader. Younger children will enjoy listening to the story.-Monica Fleche, Union Public Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Book list From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. 9780547152226 In their latest round of endearing adventures, best pals Mouse and Mole suit up excitedly for a day of springtime bird-watching, but before they can focus their binoculars, each of their subjects flies away. Compromising and cooperating are the themes as the friends find elaborate, creative solutions to their problems and make a final project that celebrates their individual talents. Once again, transitional readers will enjoy the well-paced text's wordplay (including lots of puns); the gentle, realistic friendship conflicts; and the ink-and-watercolor artwork that captures the story's humor, action, and feeling.--Engberg, Gillian Copyright 2009 Booklist Snowflake Bentley by Mary Azarian School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780395861622 K-Gr 3-This picture-book biography beautifully captures the essence of the life and passion of Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931), known to many as "The Snowflake Man." A plaque in his hometown honors the work of this simple farmer who labored for 50 years to develop a technique of microphotography in an attempt to capture "...the grandeur and mystery of the snowflake." The story of this self-taught scientist begins with his early interest in the beauty of snow and his determination to find a way of sharing that beauty with others. At 16, his parents spent their life's savings on a special camera with its own microscope so he could make a permanent record of individual snowflakes. After two years of work, he perfected a technique for making acceptable pictures. He spent the rest of his life photographing ice crystals and sharing them with neighbors and interested scientists and artists around the world. Azarian's woodblock illustrations, hand tinted with watercolors, blend perfectly with the text and recall the rural Vermont of Bentley's time. The inclusion of a photograph of the scientist at work and three of his remarkable photographs adds authenticity. Two articles about his work, one written by Bentley himself, are listed on the CIP page. The story of this man's life is written with graceful simplicity. Sidebars decorated with snowflakes on every page add facts for those who want more details. An inspiring selection.-Virginia Golodetz, Children's Literature New England, Burlington, VT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780395861622 Azarian's (A Farmer's Alphabet) handsome woodcuts provide a homespun backdrop to Martin's (Grandmother Bryant's Pocket) brief biography of a farmboy born in 1865 on the Vermont snowbelt who never lost his fascination with snowflakes. Wilson A. Bentley spent 50 years pioneering the scientific study of ice crystals, and developed a technique of microphotography that allowed him to capture the hexagonal shapes and prove that no two snowflakes are alike. Martin conveys Bentley's passion in lyrical language ("snow was as beautiful as butterflies, or apple blossoms"), and punctuates her text with frequent sidebars packed with intriguing tidbits of information (though readers may be confused by the two that explain Bentley's solution of how to photograph the snowflakes). Hand-tinted with watercolors and firmly anchored in the rural 19th century, Azarian's woodcuts evoke an era of sleighs and woodstoves, front porches and barn doors, and their bold black lines provide visual contrast to the delicate snowflakes that float airily in the sidebars. A trio of Bentley's ground-breaking black-and-white photographs of snowflakes, along with a picture and quote from him about his love for his work, is the icing that tops off this attractive volume. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved The Giver by Lois Lowry Publishers Weekly Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 9780440219071 Winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal, this thought-provoking novel centers on a 12-year-old boy's gradual disillusionment with an outwardly utopian futuristic society; in a starred review, PW said, ``Lowry is once again in top form... unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.'' Ages 10-up. (Sept.) The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. 9780060890353 Fourteen-year-old, hearing-impaired, and bespectacled Symone accompanies her brilliant Uncle Victor on a journey to Antarctica, where her uncle pursues a mad plan to disprove a fellow scientist's Hollow Earth theory. Symone must discover her own way through the lies swirling around her like white snow. As fellow travelers begin to fall sick and die, Symone's hope and comfort is found in the romantic ghost of a polar explorer. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Uptown by Bryan Collier Publishers Weekly (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved 9780805073997 "Collier's watercolor and collage artwork effectively blends a boy's idealism with the telling details of the city streets in this picture-book tour of Harlem," said PW. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved |
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