The Empress of Mars

With the Seattle Public Library system shut down for a week, Bede and I are not sure who brought home The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker, but we're both glad somebody did. While not billed as a comedy, the novel is definitely funny. I appreciate humor-infused science-fiction. Humor is subjective, however. Fortunately, you can read the first chapter right here to decide if this story about a PanCeltic woman and her three daughters who brew the only beer available on Mars is your cup of tea (buttered, of course, with milk from cows bred on Mars by Clan Morrigan). I enjoyed it so much I read sections aloud to Bede just for the pleasure of sharing the humor. Let me know what you think.

This is not a book review. This is me exhorting, "Read it! Read it!" I've never read anything by Kage Baker before this novel, and now I'm compelled to seek out her other stories.

"It would be as if you or I were dating an apple fritter."

Defective Yeti's review of Twilight has me rolling in the aisles.

Art, work and compensation: an Aesop's fable revisited

I'm pointing the way to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast again so you may read Jules' book review of The Grasshopper's Song: An Aesop's Fable Revisited, by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Chris Raschka. The crux of the review: "What is the worth of art? How does art improve our lives? How should artists be compensated?"

Congratulations to everyone who made it through the Third Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge. I didn't even attempt it this year, due to my previously booked weekend schedule. MotherReader plans to announce the winners tonight.

Margaret Read MacDonald and my daughter

On Saturday, we were all revved up to see Recess Monkey at the central Seattle Public Library branch when we found out Margaret Read MacDonald was telling stories at Island Books. Lucia enjoys the music of Recess Monkey quite a bit, but she has a connection with Margie (as the great Dr. MacDonald introduces herself), and opted to attend the storytelling event instead. Lucia drew a picture of Aree and her friends wearing layers of dresses, based on the Thai story The Girl Who Wore Too Much. Here is the picture:




Margaret Read MacDonald told some of her favorite stories from the picture-books she's published, including The Squeaky Door and The Old Woman and Her Pig. My favorite picture-book by MacDonald is Fat Cat, illustrated by Julie Paschkis, and it was to my delight that when MacDonald unveiled her new book, a British variant on the Beauty and the Beast story called The Great Smelly, Slobbery, Small Tooth Dog, Paschkis had provided the drawings once more.

What I wish you could see are the end-papers. Paschkis drew different plants to symbolize the emotions that develop in the story, and the end-papers have illustrations of these plants plus their symbolic meanings. I cringe to see how this book will be bound for library copies, as beautiful end-papers are often spoiled by the necessary steps to process books for public use. Is this a clever marketing ploy to get people to buy copies of the book for their own collections? It works! I bought a copy of the book for my godmother, but I think I may have to reconsider the notion that I don't need a copy for myself. Lucia concurs.

What'll I Do With the Baby-o?

I just received my copy of What'll I Do With the Baby-o? Nursery Rhymes, Songs, and Stories for Babies, by Jane Cobb, published by Black Sheep Press in Canada. Readers who are children's librarians probably recognize Jane Cobb's name through the perennial staple of program-preparation, I'm a Little Teapot! Presenting Preschool Storytime.

Cobb is currently the Coordinator of Parent-Child Mother Goose Programs for Vancouver Public Library and has worked as a children's librarian for 25 years. Her understanding for what works with both parents and children shines through in this incredible resource for children's librarians, early childhood teachers, parents wishing to learn more songs and rhymes for babies, as well as performers who want to be effective in welcoming the youngest children into the storytelling fold.

Cobb's book comes with a compact disc of 36 songs and rhymes for tunes not easily found through other recordings. Those who have had to hunt down recordings and beg colleagues to sing songs repeatedly so they could learn them (including bribing them with chocolate to sing the songs over voicemail so that the songs could be replayed) will particularly appreciate this resource. I was tickled to find not only simple versions of folktales I like to tell, but a version of a story I learned from my mother through storytimes called "Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle" (who are Miss Cat and Miss Dog in our versions). This is a story told with two thumbs representing the two characters, and the whole audience gets involved with the characters going up the hill and down the hill and up the hill and down the hill etc. to visit each other.

A traditional story chant done with hand and arm actions that I'm eager to learn is called "This is the Key to the Kingdom":

This is the key to the kingdom.
And in the kingdom there is a town,
And in the town there is a hill,
And on the hill there is a street,
And on the street there is a house,
And in the house there is a room.
And in the room there is a bed,
And on the bed there is a basket,
And in the basket there is a blanket,
And under the blanket there is a BABY!

Then, do the whole thing backwards:

Baby under the blanket,
Blanket in the basket,
Basket on the bed,
Bed in the room,
Room in the house,
House on the street,
Street on the hill,
Hill in the town,
Town in the kingdom,
And THIS is the key to the kingdom.

Update: Jane Cobb is right-- this little play is much easier to remember than you might think. It took me three tries before I got it down just right.

What'll I Do With the Baby-o? also has lists of print and audio resources, sample 60 and 30 minute programs, and indexes to songs and rhymes by type (i.e. action rhymes, circle games, rhymes in other languages) and first line, plus the songs recorded on the accompanying compact disc. While the price-tag may be a jolt for some ($39.95 in both Canadian and US dollars, plus shipping), keep in mind that this is a book published by a small press. For me, a storyteller who performs for young children all the time, it's an investment well-spent.

Thanks go to Margaret Read MacDonald, who recommended this book in the last Seattle Storytellers Guild newsletter.

Other People's Book Reviews

Here are three chapter-books I've read recently based upon fellow bloggers' reviews:

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree—Lauren Tarshis
Reviewer: Fuse Number 8

The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things--Carolyn Mackler
Reviewer: HipWriterMama

Note: One of the highlights for me was the main character's Thanksgiving visit from New York to Seattle.

Life as We Knew It--Susan Beth Pfeffer
Reviewer: Jen Robinson

Also, don't miss out on a review of two picture-books from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast:
The Wish and A Seed is Sleepy
Reviewer: Jules of 7Imp

Note: Both of these picture-books feature sunflowers prominently (as if sunflowers could be anything but prominent). Ever since she was a baby, Lucia has been my "Sunflower Girl." She's long-legged and beautiful. By the time she's a teenager, she will probably be taller than I. She's almost four years old, and already she's more than half my height.


Sunflower Girl with Mommy