Authors

Scarecrow’s Dance – Jane Yolen and Bagram Ibatoulline

/ still a dreamer / 4 Comments

When I first planned on buying this book, I admit it was largely for the magnificent illustrations of Bagram Ibatoulline. I first came across Scarecrow’s Dance as a yet-unbound copy and part of an illustrating exercise at the NJ SCBWI Illustrators’ Intensive in 2008.  I was, and still am, utterly entranced by the rich, yet soft, colors at dusk, and the beauty Ibatoulline has created in the cornfields and farm setting. If you are an illustrator or one who appreciates excellence in illustration, this book is worth the cost of that alone. And the story, in the brief exposure I had to it at that time, was so touching as to bring me to tears, and it still does.

I eagerly awaited it’s publication with my primary interest in the art. It finally arrived so I could appreciate both story and text. Jane Yolen is the author of Scarecrow’s Dance, and recipient of the Caldecott Medal for Owl Moon, and many, many other awards in her rich and extensive writing career for children. As I examined this book more closely, several thoughts did cross my mind … as beautiful as I found the illustrations, would they appeal to the target age group, 4 – 8? Would a child that age lose interest in the dusky light’s subtlety on page after page? Would a barn described “as red as blood” be disturbing to a small child? Might some parents find both a child and scarecrow kneeling and praying to God a predominantly Christian message they may not wish to read to their child in a picture book story?

I don’t actually know the answers to these. I found the overriding message to be of the greatest importance, and that is finding who we are and knowing our place in the world to be unique and one of value. I think a parent reading this story to a child with the feeling Yolen has put into it, will easily impart that as the primary message, and it is very beautifully done in both word and image.

I visited Jane Yolen’s web site, and found a wonderful section just for us writers – lots of sound advice to guide us on our journey to becoming not just published, but still sane when we get there. Kathy Temean, the RA of NJ SCBWI, also posted 20 Yolen writing tips as transcribed from the recent SCBWI Conference in New York. All great stuff.

And then, Bagram Ibatoulline. I kiss the ground this illustrator walks on. His work is simply magnificent. In addition to Scarecrow’s Dance, he has done two books by Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane and Great Joy. He illustrated a beautiful book, Crow Call, by Lois Lowry, The Serpent Came to Gloucester, and many, many others. Next time you’re in a bookstore, I highly recommend you take a look at Ibatoulline’s work.

The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

/ still a dreamer

I’m trying to figure out – why didn’t I love this book?

I thought The DaVinci Code was terrific as was Angels and Demons, yet something was missing in The Lost Code for me. What Katherine Solomon was studying and what “The Word” was really all about are right up my alley, but was there too much of it? Was there more information about the Freemasons and the Masonic symbolism than was needed to keep the plot moving briskly?

As always, once I was reading, it was hard to put down, but away from it, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t wait to get back to it! Most strange. I still say that Brown has an excellent way of jamming suspense and intrigue into a very short timeframe in which the novel takes place, and for that I enjoyed The Lost Symbol. But something wasn’t right.

While I never saw it coming who Mal’akh actually was, I also found him to be somewhat of a 2-dimensional character. Yes, he was a psychopath at this point, but I don’t know if I was given ample reason to understand how he got that crazy considering his background. I also don’t recall the interior dialogue of characters in italics in previous books, though I just may not be remembering, and I’m not sure that I liked it.

I was fascinated by the information about the Washington Monument and the surrounding buildings and their architecture, but did so much factual information pull me away from the storyline? Was there just too much? Next time I’m in D.C., I will look at the buildings described in a very different light, no doubt, but I think I was being overwhelmed with non-fiction in a fictional account. I believe Dan Brown has a message – an important message about man and his future – that he wants to share. I like the message. I guess I’m wondering if Brown is conveying it in the most accessible way.

I’m puzzled. But then, who am I to criticize? These are just my perceptions, and I wonder if others share them or feel differently.

Fast, Riveting Read – Moon Called

/ still a dreamer

Sometimes I like to read literature, read in my field, (children’s books), something enlightening and inspiring, or perhaps a good, complex novel. I like a variety of things.

Sometimes I am in a place where I want to read something totally engaging which sucks me in hard and doesn’t let me go until I’m done and all but spits me out.

And that’s what I got when I read Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. A writer friend’s husband thought I might like this, (how did he get my number?!), and lent it to me. Was he right! Now I wouldn’t have actually sought out a book written in first person by a woman who’s a Volkswagen mechanic and who’s also a coyote shapeshifter, and whose life is intertwined with werewolves. I wouldn’t have known it existed. But now I do.

What a fast, fabulous, can’t-put-it-down novel! The storyline is solid and very well told with just the right amount of factual information woven in about werewolves to keep the plot moving along, but never leaving me feel like I was being educated. Our heroine, Mercedes Thompson, a.k.a. Mercy, is a well-developed, engaging character. The pace is very fast, and wrapped around Mercy’s friend Stefan, a vampire, a witch who is a “cleaner”, and some involvement of the local fae, it’s totally absorbing.  The backdrop is the local werewolf clan, headed by Mercy’s next door neighbor and pack Alpha, Adam.

I realize as I write this, that Moon Called could sound almost hokey, but truly, it’s not. It’s a complex story in the nature and motives of the characters and very well-written. So much so, that you’ll see that the book I am now reading is the next in the Mercy Thompson series, Blood Bound. I can only hope it’s as good!

Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert

/ still a dreamer

Are the words #1 New York Times Bestseller a draw for you? For me, generally not, though I find and read some by chance every now and then. And sometimes one comes to me through a friend, as did Eat, Pray, Love. Because we are kindred spirits and she thought I might enjoy it, I began to read.

Eat, Pray, Love is the story of one woman’s journey to find balance in her life, to become whole. It is a spiritual journey with many revelations along the way, as she travels, spending 4 months each, in Italy, India and Bali. With everything a woman in her thirties is supposed to be grateful to have – a husband, a great career, and the house in the country – Elizabeth Gilbert is utterly miserable. She makes the year long journey after a painful marriage and an even more painful divorce, followed by a profound depression.

One of the things that is so striking about the story told through her travels is that Gilbert had the courage to embark on this journey at all. I find the book to have its shortcomings, but as I finished it, I found myself impressed with the bravery it took for one woman, on her own, to pick up and travel to 3 foreign countries. She spoke none of their native languages, although yes, English is commonly spoken in all these places. In fact, she went to Italy in part to learn Italian. What she learned – in the Eat chapters – was to enjoy and appreciate … food, beauty, life, and she began to recover, putting on weight and feeling a greater balance.

In the Pray chapters, she is at an ashram in India, working through more of her issues and finding her religion, her God, the spirituality that resonates with Elizabeth Gilbert. She learns to truly pray. And while I found this section too long at times, it was still easy to get lost in India, as in Italy, in cultural experiences so totally different from our own and so rich in their own right.

And then Love. Bali was engrossing. One of Gilbert’s strengths as a journalist is describing so many aspects of the culture where she is living, and I found the Balinese to be fascinating. Here, Gilbert continues to heal and grow, and at long last find what she thought she might likely be without the rest of her life after her marital experience – love. And sex. It is interesting to watch how this plays out, and how, only in a book promo at the end, we find how it all truly ends.

In a conversation about Eat, Pray, Love that I had with another woman, she felt that Gilbert was spoiled and self-indulgent … who could just drop their lives and travel the world for one year on a search for themselves? Who could afford such a luxury? Especially in our pressured economic times, it’s easy to see where that may come from, for how many of us could take such a journey? And yes, at moments, Gilbert did seem a bit self-indulgent. Does she seem to belabor points at times? At times, for me, yes. Ultimately, however, this should not detract from the wonderful adventure – one woman’s search to find herself , find balance and to recover from paralyzing pain – and the depths within herself Gilbert was willing to plumb to do this.

There are life-changing experiences throughout, wonderful people Gilbert meets and befriends, and a spiritual search … I think there’s good stuff here for lots of us.

Patricia Reilly Giff – Pictures of Hollis Woods and Lily’s Crossing

/ still a dreamer

Here are two books for middle grade readers by the same author, Patricia Reilly Giff, and both winners of the Newbery Honor Award. I think, in addition to their both being very strong pieces of work, they demonstrate how an author has grown in even a few years.

I first read Pictures of Hollis Woods a few months ago as part of a list I’d made to learn more about writing for middle grade by reading Newbery winners. This book is the strongest, most memorable, and deeply touching of any I have read to date. Hollis is an artistic 12 year old girl who was abandoned at birth, and who has been in several different foster homes ever since, ultimately running away from them all. In the present, she is placed with Josie, a retired art teacher and artist who is slowly losing her memory. Hollis develops a real fondness for Josie, and does her best to not let the foster system know that Josie is becoming incapable of caring for her.

Interspersed with chapters of the present, are chapters describing pictures that Hollis has drawn of a situation in the past, where a foster home wanted to adopt her … a home where she was truly happy. However, something terrible happened and she ran again. Giff has artfully balanced Hollis’ present day circumstances with the pictures she’s drawn telling the story of what happened in the home where she wanted to stay. The two juxtapose until they are woven together into the present. The two story lines become one, building to a great climax. I am amazed at how skillfully Giff has done this. I am deeply touched by Hollis’ character; she is so sympathetic, that it never matters a moment that she “is trouble” or can be flip or fresh. I only cared to see what had happened at that special home and how it would turn out. Talk about a book I couldn’t put down! What a wonderful story and group of characters, and what an inspiration, I would imagine, for Giff’s middle grade readers.

I just finished reading Lily’s Crossing, written 5 years earlier. It’s a very different story, and without the alternating of present with past. Again, the story takes place in Queens, (which, having lived in NYC for quite some time, I always enjoy), in 1944 at the time of the Normandy Invasion. Lily’s Crossing brings with it a much deeper glimpse into a period in time than Hollis Woods, and for that I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, and it may not be fair to compare, Lily’s character, while very likable, isn’t as deeply sympathetic for me as that of Hollis.

Lily is cared for by her father, Poppy, and Gram, his mother. Her mother passed away when she was much younger. When school is out they go to Gram’s house in the Rockaways, where Lily meets Albert, a refugee from Hungary. He has escaped the Nazis, but lost his parents and left behind a sister, from whom he was separated, in France. As Lily and Gram prepare to go to Rockaway, Poppy is called into the service and ships out to France to fight the war. Lily is a funny, somewhat flawed but appealing character, who happens to tell lies quite often, one to her new friend Albert that later endangers his life. But for me, the dramatic tension could have been so much stronger. Still, the characters were all well drawn, the 1944 backdrop always of interest, and the ending very satisfying.

What was missing? I think I was spoiled by the strength of Pictures of Hollis Woods! These stories were written 5 years apart, and really are both ones to read. But it also showed me the growth of an insightful author who clearly cares about her characters and their growth over the course of a novel. I like it when I really care about a character and what happens to her. Patricia Reilly Giff earned those Newbery awards for a very good reason.