Sean Griswold's Head

Payton Gritas thinks her life is fairly normal. She has two pesky older brothers, a crazy best friend, and gets good grades in school. But when she accidentally walks in on her father while he is in the process of taking the medication needed to treat his multiple sclerosis, Payton realizes that maybe things aren't as perfect as she once thought. Furious that her parents had been hiding her father's illness from her, she stops communicating with her family and lets her schoolwork fall by the wayside. But Payton's guidance councilor has an idea and she is assigned to select a "focus object": An inanimate object that she can study in-depth and focus all of her emotions on. After much deliberation she picks an object that has been in front of her all along - the back of Sean Griswold's head. Payton has been sitting behind Sean for most of her life since their names are so close to each other alphabetically but she doesn't really know him. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Payton begins stalking focusing on Sean's head, and soon she's pretty much focusing on all of Sean. Is first love just the thing to solve all of Payton's problems? Or will it create a whole slew of new ones?

Written by Lindsey Leavitt, Sean Griswold's Head is a sweet but surprisingly complicated story of first love. What really impressed me most about this book is the way that the lightheartedness of the Payton/Sean love story blended so well with the much meatier story of Payton's father's illness. The tone shifts smoothly when it needs to and there is plenty going on here for most readers to enjoy. I enjoyed getting inside Payton's head and seeing the complex and often irrational emotions that this teenage girl experiences when everything seems to go right and wrong all at once.

Overall Grade: B+

We Love Picture Books

Back in October the New York Times published an article describing the recent decline of the picture book. Oh boy. This article made several good points about how parents are pushing their kids to read more challenging material. But they also make it sound like the picture book is a dying animal when, in fact, many outside the publishing world would say that the picture book is really thriving. In my library system, for example, many of the children's librarians stated that the picture book collection was the highest-circulating collection in their library. Don't even get me started on the benefits of picture books - including a wide and challenging vocabulary that greatly exceeds most early chapter books, as well as the way that picture books get readers to think critically as they examine both images and text.

But on to the good news. Yesterday the Times published something in their Opinion Pages that their editors had never seen before: A Scroll to the Editor. Sent by the teachers and students at an elementary school in California, this lovely banner declared the school's undying love for the picture book. Make sure you click on the link found on this page to read the full letter from the school's librarian, which describes how the school created their own Love a Picture Book Month.

How awesome is that?

Brian Jacques

Everyone has a book that defines their childhood. Not just a favorite book, one that you really enjoyed. Instead, this is a book that sets the tone for the rest of your reading life, that influences you in some kind of profound way. Maybe you don't realize how much this book affects you at the time, but I have to believe that every child who reads encounters a book like this at least once in their lifetime.

For me, that book was Redwall by Brian Jacques. I first read this book when I was 12 years old after one of my cousins gave the book a glowing review. Now, I didn't exactly run straight to the library and search for this book. I didn't even have active intentions of finding the book at all. But on a later visit to the library I did happen to come across it and, remembering my cousin's love for the book and intrigued by the idea of warrior mice, decided to give it a shot.

Let me tell you, whatever whim of fancy convinced me to take Redwall home with me changed my reading life forever.

At 352 pages long this was at the time the longest book I had ever read. Yet I was not at all intimidated by the small-ish type of the book's thickness. I read the book with great relish as its vivid descriptions, harrowing adventures, and sharp characters sucked me into the story. I was hooked.

As soon as I was finished I immediately set out to track down the rest of the series. For a solid 2-3 year period Redwall books were just about all that I read as I dove into each novel over and over again, reliving the adventures of Mossflower's woodland creatures with as much enthusiasm as I had the first time around. In time I would branch out to other authors and genres, but my favorites are often books that remind me on some level of Redwall. More importantly, these books taught me how to appreciate good writing. No one can describe a scene, an action sequence, or a feast like Brian Jacques.

Fast forward to February 2011. I'm now an adult and working as a children's librarian. And sadly I learned that Brian Jacques had passed away thanks to a sudden heart attack. I mourned the passing of this beloved author. I also mourned a little bit for my childhood.

Fast forward again to early April 2011, when I had the most surreal experience. Before his death, Brian Jacques had finished work on the latest - and now final - book in the series. Titled The Rogue Crew, the premise of the book sounds somewhat familiar but promises to bring out all of the elements that Jacques' fans love:

Redwall Abbey has never seen a creature more evil or more hideous than Razzid Wearat. Captain of the Greenshroud, a ship with wheels that can sail through water as well as the forest, this beast is a terror of both land and sea, traveling Mossflower Country, killing nearly everything-and everyone- in his path. And his goal? To conquer Redwall Abbey.

From Salamandastron to the High North Coast, the brave hares of the Long Patrol team up with the fearless sea otters of the Rogue Crew to form a pack so tough, so rough, only they can defend the abbey and defeat Razzid Wearat once and for all.

So even though Redwall was first published in 1986, and even though I only started reading these books during the late 1990s, and even though the author died during my first year of librarianship I still got to order one of the Redwall books for the library's collection.

I kind of feel like I've come full circle.



For those interested, here is a link to Brian Jacques' website, full of more information about the author and his books. And here is another link to a lovely obituary published on School Library Journal's website.

Nice Lady

Said to me just the other day while I was helping a girl clean up the toys in our play area:

"Sandy is a very nice lady."

Made my day.

Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom

Violet's world was turned upside town two years ago when her parents divorced and her father moved to Los Angeles to marry a pretty young actress. Ever since then Violet's mother has dated a number of other men, all of whom turned out to be liars/loosers/jerks. Needless to say, Violet isn't happy with all of these changes and she constantly butts heads with her new step family and her mom's new status as a single woman. When her mom takes up with the unfortunately-named Dudly Wiener, Violet decides that her mom needs a little help finding the perfect man. And who would be a better boyfriend/husband/father than the handsome, suave George Clooney? Violet writes the actor an impassioned letter and meanwhile starts hatching some plans of her own to help her mom see the light.

Author Susin Nielsen really gets her middle-grade audience. She creates very well-developed characters and does a great job of helping readers experience the complicated emotions that her characters are feeling. Nielsen is also completely honest wither her audience, and this respect for her young readers is a rare treat. This book in particular is a solid look at divorce and the effect that it - and all of its messy fall out - can have on a child's life. Violet is a flawed character who acts out, makes rash judgements and takes her frustrations out on other people. But despite her pettiness (or perhaps because of it), readers will still care for Violet as they come to understand her pain and root for her to finally make peace with her parents' divorce. Parts of this book are funny while parts are sad, and in the end it all blends together to create a dynamic, engaging story.

Overall Grade: A

April Fool!

Ah, April Fools Day. A day when you really can't take much of anything that anyone says too seriously. A day where you might need to spend some time looking over your shoulder. And more importantly, a day when Corporate America really flexes its design and marketing muscles as they spoof themselves and/or their industry in gag advertisements.

Today's favorite is from the lovely people at The Horn Book, noted for their bi-monthly journal of book reviews and interesting articles about children's literature. None of the books in this blog post are real, but you have to admit that they're pretty darn funny.