National Poetry Month: Epitaph

It's a bit morbid, especially on a day when I swear the peony bushes grew another foot overnight, but this is my favorite optional reading before the Mourner's Kiddish and I want to share it.

Epitaph
by Merrit Malloy

When I die
Give what's left of me away
To children
And old men that wait to die.
And if you need to cry,
Cry for your brother
Walking the street beside you.
And when you need me,
Put your arms
Around anyone
And give them
What you need to give to me.

I want to leave you something,
Something better
Than words
Or sounds.

Look for me
In the people I've known
Or loved,
And if you cannot give me away,
At least let me live on your eyes
And not on your mind.

You can love me most
By letting
Hands touch hands,
By letting
Bodies touch bodies,
And by letting go
Of children
That need to be free.

Love doesn't die,
People do.
So, when all that's left of me
Is love,
Give me away.

National Poetry Month: Little Bird Mother

Little Bird Mother
by Jennifer Carrillo

Little bird mother
Let them fly
Let them fly from time to time
Little bird mother set them free
Let them become anything they can be
Don't hold on mother
For if you do
They will not gorw
They will never get to know
This world
Don't worry
They'll return
You gave them love and support
And when they need it again
You'll be there with open arms
Little bird mother
Let them fly
Let them fly from time to time
Little bird mother set them free
Let them become anything they can be.
Love you, Mom.


This week's poems are from Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from Writegirl. You can learn more about Writegirl and the cool things they do here.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Dinner

Dinner
by Janelle Fine

A rusty knife and rotten peach
chewed up words at the dinner table
crisp white linen

I saw verbs and nouns
displayed on bone-white China

how they devoured sin
like crunching through glass with teeth
or drinking hot-blooded champagne
I chewed my sandwich slowly

and I remember
I still remember the look on her face
when she walked in

all that was left of me was a torn
and wrinkled piece of skin


This week's poems are from Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from Writegirl. You can learn more about Writegirl and the cool things they do here.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Raindrops

Raindrops
by Kirsten Giles

Miniature oceans,
or sacks of worried sky.
The beads of sweat
from a lighting bolt.

I sit on my porch
surrounded
by the shimmering curtain
of rain.

I see liquid parachutes
for cloud children,
escape pods
for angels.

I watch the drops as they scatter,
like tiny mirrors
sent
to show the world its reflection.


This week's poems are from Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from Writegirl. You can learn more about Writegirl and the cool things they do here.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Daughter

Daughter
by Fahiya Rashid

I am the daughter of the forest
ever breathing, ever there
I cannot be terminated, because I always
sprout back
I am the weed that grandmother
pulls out of her garden every day
I am the weed that is always ripped up
and shredded apart
But when the sun rises every morning
and takes its place in the horizon
I will ascend from the dark, musky soil
I am unearthed once more--
the daughter of the forest


This week's poems are from Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from Writegirl. You can learn more about Writegirl and the cool things they do here.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Revolutionary War

2009 saw 3 books about the Revolutionary War nominated for a MG/YA Cybil Award.

For Liberty: The Story of the Boston Massacre Timothy Decker

Covering the Boston Massacre, this is an illustrated book for older readers. It's picture book format but almost works as a graphic novel. In black-and-white illustrations we see a close up of the first bullet fired, of the anger in protesting faces and in one chaotic crowd scene, small bubbles that show the steps in loading a musket.

Interestingly, this is the story of the Boston Massacre as told from the British perspective. While I think this a valuable balance to the history of the event, it ends up very skewed. It never mentions that people died, but does show 5 coffins. We get no names and it's very easy to walk away from the book thinking that the dead were British soldiers. In the end the text is so slight, relying much on visuals, that it doesn't give enough information. There's also no back matter for further reading or to fill in missing information.

Revolutionary War (Battle Box)

This is a rather intriguing concept. The Battle Box is a... box o'stuff. There's a book about the war, and then 13 pieces of war memorabilia-- things such as a replica of Continental Congress Dollar and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Libraries who worry about circulating such things don't need to worry-- they're all pictured in the back of the book (which is useful even if you get to keep the goodies because it explains what each item is.)

The book itself is in interesting concept. It focuses almost exclusively on the major battles of the war, but it's also just a series of pull-out boxes. Yes, one can have pull-out boxes and no main text to be pulling out from. Very good for browsing and leafing through with TONS of great information--body and prisoner counts on both sides for each battle, timelines, mini-biographies, maps and more.

It'll work best for readers with some background information of the war to put it into context, but it's a very fun and cool concept.

Washington at Valley Forge Russell Freedman

OH LOOK! Russell Freedman wrote an awesome book.

This one covers the infamous winter the Continental Army spent at Valley Forge and how (and why) it completely transformed them from a ragtag group of soldiers into a fighting force capable of beating the British.

This was the most informative of the three books and while nothing can beat the kid appeal of Battle Box, this one wins for literary quality. It reads well and gives so much more information than one normally gets about that winter. It also does a great job of showing Washington's military inexperience (while we has a war hero, he had never commanded anything larger than a regiment before) and the political machinations that went on behind his back. Valley Forge not only transformed the army, but was also when Washington showed us how he became the father of our nation.

Plus, lots of great visual aids and more than enough back matter and citations to make me swoon.


Today's Nonfiction Round up is over at Telling Kids the Truth.

Books Provided by... the publishers for CYBILS consideration, except for Battle Box, which was provided by my wallet, for CYBILS consideration.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Fear of Apples

Fear of Apples
by Alexandra Gazzaniga Padilla

Fallen from cold brown branches,
bruised and broken.

I collect them anyway.
Grandmother says to get them all:
jam does not need fresh fruit.

My fingers are cold on the soft skin.
My thumbnail punctures to the core,
and I drop it, afraid of a worm.

I do not want this
chore. It feels like
gathering the dead.

I'd like to
dig into the dirt, bury
these mealy corpses.

Let me pick fresh flowers,
drop one on the new
fruit-grave,

put another in my hair, and
twirl it all the way home.


This week's poems are from Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from Writegirl. You can learn more about Writegirl and the cool things they do here.

Book Provided by... Writegirl, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Abraham

Abraham
by Lilah Khoja

"Take it" and
"You have to" and
"I Command You."
and memories run through his mind and
memories run through
his mind and memories
run through his mind and
memories seep into
his fingertips.
and again, "Take it." "I Command You." and "You have to."
and and and and the blade feels heavy
as his heart
and he can't hear his wife's
tears and he can't hear
his heart's beat.
just
just
just
just

white noise...

and then relief:
a feather in his hand,
a feather in his heart.

"WriteGirl is a nonprofit organization for high school girls centered on the craft of creative writing and empowerment through self-expression. Through one-on-one mentoring and monthly workshops, girls are given techniques, insights and hot tips for great writing in all genres from professional women writers."

They do some pretty awesome stuff in fostering the writing voices of young women. The young women they work with produce some even more awesome stuff.

This week I'll be highlighting poems from Silhouette: Bold Lines & Voices from Writegirl, an anthology of work produced by young writers in the program. In addition to the written works, the book also contains tips and writing exercises for readers who want to do their own writing.

Book Provided by... Writegirl, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Make Lemonade

Make Lemonade Virginia Euwer Wolff

There are 2 poetry posts today because I missed one earlier this week (oops!)

I am telling you this just the way it went
with all the details I remember as they were,
and including the parts I'm not sure about.
You know, where something happened
but you aren't convinced
you understood it?
Other people would maybe tell it different
but I was there.

It's like a bird. One minutes it's picking up something
off the sidewalk
and you recognize it all together as a bird eating.
The next minute it's gone into traffic on the street
and you try and remember how that bird was,
how its pointy feet were strutting
and its neck was bulging back and forth
but its gone and you're the only one can tell
it was there in front of you.

This is like that.

Make Lemonade is one of the earliest verse novels*-- it came out in 1993.

Often, when I read a ground-breaking book, after the ground has been well broken and things have grown up on it, it's hard to see what was so special about the original. I just have to remember that if it hadn't been for X, everything else that has come since wouldn't have happened.

I did NOT feel that way about this book.

LeVaughn wants to go to college. She'll be the first in her family, the first in her building to go. Her entire life has been about keeping up the grades she'll need and trying to make the money for tuition.

She gets a job babysitting for Jolly. Jolly's 17, a high school dropout, and works in a factory. She has 2 kids LeVaughn would watch after school.

It's harder than LeVaughn thought it would be to balance watching Jolly's kids and her school work. Jolly doesn't know what she's doing and LeVaughn needs to remind her about basic things like buying new diapers. Then Jolly gets fired and can't pay LeVaughn anymore, but at that point LeVaughn's not walking away and will do whatever she can to help Jolly and her kids out.

I liked LeVaughn's inner strength-- not just in how she's pushing herself for a better life, but also in how, when Jolly loses her job, she stands up to her mother to continue doing what she thinks is right. She also struggles with her situation-- is it wrong to take money from Jolly to ensure that she will never end up like her?

AND, most of all, I love how LeVaughn knows she's better that Jolly, but Jolly still has a lot to teach her about the world and that even though they both live in poverty, LeVaughn has no idea how dark things can be.

A wonderful book that still remains relevant and popular 18 years after its debut. (18 years!!!! 1993 was NOT that long ago. Please tell me my calculator just lied to me!)

In other poetry posts this week, I reviewed Inside Out and Back Again, Karma, shared a song for Passover, discussed A Foot in the Mouth: Poems to Speak, Sing and Shout, and reviewed The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba.

Today's round-up is over at Book Aunt. Be sure to check it out!

*you know, besides epics like Beowulf or the Illiad. ;)

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: The Firefly Letters

The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba Margarita Engle

Elena

The castle where Fredrika
spend her childhood
was haunted.

In the attic, there was a sword
that had beheaded a nobleman
during a war.

There were bloodstained clothes
beside the sword.

None of the servants would climb
up to the attic to fetch boxes or trunks
that had been stored
next to ghosts.

*********

This house where I live
it haunted too.

It was built by slaves
who rebelled, and buried an overseer
inside the walls.

Papa has never been able to find
the skeleton,
but sometimes at night
I hear pitiful moans
and rattling chains.

It is either the ghost
of some poor child
from the slave ships
being driven
to market.

In 1851, Sweden's first female novelist journeyed to Cuba. Drawing extensively from her journals, Engle writes a verse novel based on Fredrika Bremer's time there.

The book is mostly told in three voices-- Fredrika's, Elena's (the daughter of the rich family Fredrika is staying with) and Cecelia's (a slave belonging to Elena's family, who acts as Fredrika's translator and guide.)

Although I found the CONSTANT parallels drawn between a woman's role and actual slavery to be a bit much and overdrawn (yes, you had no freedom if you were a rich man's daughter, but you weren't in actual chains) overall, I did really enjoy this book. I also think it makes an interesting companion to Engle's other book on Cuban slavery, The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom. I especially enjoyed seeing Cuba through three different sets of eyes-- a slave who still remembered life in Africa, a Swedish aristocrat, and a Cuban aristocrat-- they had such different opinions and noticed such different things, it gives reader a more complete picture of daily life.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Tofu Quilt

Tofu Quilt Ching Yeung Russell

Secret Wish

I remember Mr. Hon
once said that
a person should see more things
and open his eyes
if he wants to write a good story.

Ma cannot afford to send me off
to see things.
So I decide that
when I grow up,
I will not marry a doctor,
or a lawyer,
or a teacher,
or a businessman.
I will marry
a bus driver,
who can drive me everywhere
to see the world
and it will be
free.

And he must look like
Mr. Hon.


Tofu Quilt is a semi-auto-biographical verse novel about growing up in Hong Kong in the 50s and 60s and wanting to become a writer. Most of the poems focus on her relatives insisting that she shouldn't have big dreams or so much education, because she's a girl (her mother very much disagrees and insists that boys and girls are the same), reading books, or her trails and tribulations with various writing teachers over the years.

There isn't much of a plot, but it is a nice book especially for its pictures into day-to-day life in mid-century Hong Kong. The book shines when Ying is listening to the old ladies gossip at the end of the day or describing the flower market or the foreign tourist taking photos of drying laundry.


ARC Provided by... the publisher for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: A Foot in the Mouth

Last June, I reviewed A Poke in the I: A Collection of Concrete Poems and A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, both collections selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka

I'm very familiar with those two titles because they're on our summer reading lists. Somehow, I TOTALLY missed that they have a third poetry collection out!

A Foot in the Mouth: Poems to Speak, Sing and Shout

As you could probably tell from the subtitle, this collection features poems that demand to be read OUT LOUD. It's broken into sections such as "Poems for Three Voices" "Short Stuff" "Bilingual Poems" "List Poems" and "Limericks."

Authors range from Sandra Cisneros ("Good Hot Dogs" in "Bilingual Poems") to Shakespeare (Macbeth Act IV, Scene 1 aka "Double Double Toil and Trouble" in "Poems for Three Voices.")

It's a great collection that would work well with schools and assignments, as well as general browsing.

Here's one from the section "Short Stuff"

Pussycat, Pussycat
by Max Fatchen

Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?
Licking your lips with your whiskers so clearn?
Pussycat, pussycat, purring and pudgy,
Pussycat, pussycat, WHERE IS OUR BUDGIE?




For those who don't know, budgie is British-English for parakeet.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Let My People Go!

It's after sundown! Happy Pesach!

So, here's a song for today's poetry entry.

When Israel was in Egypt land,
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go!

Go down, Moses, way down in Egpyt land
Tell old Pharoah, to let my people go!

Thus saith the Lord, bold Moses said,
Let my people go!
If not I'll smite your firstborn dead,
Let my people go!

Go down, Moses, way down in Egpyt land
Tell old Pharoah, to let my people go!

No more shall they in bondage toil,
Let my people go!
Let them come out with Egypt's spoil,
Le my people go!

Go down, Moses, way down in Egpyt land
Tell old Pharoah, to let my people go!

Here's one of my favorite videos of the song, during the writer's strike:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Let My People Go
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

National Poetry Month: Karma

Karma Cathy Ostlere

Dear Diary

Nah. That's lame.
(Be creative, you idiot!)

DEAR LOST GIRL
Who are you?
Whence have you come?
Will you tell me your secrets o voiceless one?
O yuck.

DEAR GODDESS GIRL
If illusion be your given name
and mystery wears your opaque veil
then I, Sandeep, with pen as sword
will scribe your silence
till you are cured.
(or till I'm bored)
(till I'm adored?)
(till I am gored)
(or deplored)
(or suitably and deservedly well ignored)

Rhyming diphthongs. How pathetic.


In 1984, Maya's Hindu mother commits suicide. Her Sikh father takes Maya and her mother's ashes from their Canadian home to India. Shortly after they arrive, Indira Ghandi is gunned down by her Sikh body guards. The country erupts into Hindu/Sikh violence. Maya is separated from her father and has to depend on the kindness of strangers to survive.

I love the language of this one. Many poems are told in two columns, to simulate dialogue or inner commentary on events. I also really like dual narrators. The poetry works in this one. I couldn't guarantee the formatting would work right in a blog post for some of my favorite poems, so I went with a funny poem instead.

But, I'm not sure on some of the plot details. People keep trying to give Maya away in marriage to strangers, even people who don't know her. Ostlere was traveling in India when Ghandi was assassinated, but I'm not sure on the authenticity of parts of the plot, especially when strangers promise a girl into marriage. Parts of it seem to be playing up the "exoticism" and "backwardness" of the location. But I don't know that much about modern India, so I don't know.

Has anyone with more background info than me read this? What did you think?

I loved the language and the poetry. I loved the sweep of the story and the voices. But, some of the plot details niggled a bit.

ARC Provided by... the publisher at ALA midwinter.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

My Baby Needs a Place to Sleep! Week 9

Another week, another attempt to get rid of some books so that I have space to put a crib!

Fill out the form below by next Sunday (April 24). You have until midnight (eastern).

You get:

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow by Nathan Bransford (ARC)
Shark Wars by Ernie Altbacker (ARC)
Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by various (paperback)
The Emerald Casket (The Archer Legacy) by Richard Newsome (ARC)
Ghoul Strike! by Andrew Newbound (ARC)
Looking for Marco Polo by Alan Armstrong (ARC)

3 of these books aren't out yet. I know I won't get a chance to read and review them before the baby comes and who knows what's going to happen after then!




Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Inside Out and Back Again

Black and White and Yellow and Red

The bell rings.
Everyone stands.
I stand.

They line up;
so do I.

Down a hall.
Turn left.
Take a tray.
Receive food.
Sit.

On one side
of the bright, noisy room,
light skin.
Other side,
dark skin.

Both laughing, chewing,
as if it never occured
to them
someone medium
would show up.

I don't know where to sit
any more than
I know how to eat
the pink sausage
snuggled inside bread
shaped like a corncob,
smeared with sauces
yellow and red.

I think
they are making fun
of the Vietnamese flag
until I remember
no one here likely knows
that flag's colors.

I put down the try
and wait
in the hallway.

September 2
11:30 am

Inside Out and Back Again Thanhha Lai

I got to review this wonderful novel for School Library Journal. My full review is here.

If you don't want to click over and read, here's the takeaway:

1. It got a star
2. Sensory language describing the rich smells and tastes of Vietnam draws readers in and contrasts with Hà's perceptions of bland American food, and the immediacy of the narrative will appeal to those who do not usually enjoy historical fiction


Book Provided by... School Library Journal, for review

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Orchards

everyone knows
Lisa didn't mean it
everyone knows
when a person says
certain things
they don't mean
the words
they say
really

***************

and on the polished stone
I place tiny piles of
rice and minced eggplant
nourishment
for spirits

I think of how in New York
all we ever do is take flowers
to the grave of Dad's mother
and place small stones on the top
of the grave
once a year
maybe twice
that's all

I think of you, Ruth
and I think of me
just bringing flowers
and placing stones

and how that shouldn't
be all I do
for you

Orchards Holly Thompson

Last school year, Ruth hanged herself from a tree in the Osgood's orchard. When her suicide note was found, the community was in an uproar about the cruelty of eighth-grade girls. How could they have been so cruel? How could they have been so cold to one of their classmates?

That summer, Kana and her friends are sent in different directions. Kana is shipped off to Japan to spend the summer helping her maternal relatives with their mikan orchard. Separated from her friends and family, surrounded by a culture she understands but doesn't fit into (it doesn't help that her body has decided to take after her Jewish-Russian paternal side instead of her smaller, thinner, and quieter Japanese maternal side) Kana is left contemplating Ruth's suicide and what she could have done, if anything, to prevent it.

Here's what I liked about this book:

Kana's fish-out-of-water issues have a lot less to do with Japan and more to do with her family. I think it would have been easier to do the cultural isolation thing instead of familial isolation. I appreciate that not only did it NOT take the easy route, but it did the hard route really well and making her not fit in with her extended family gave a lot more emotional depth.

Most verse novels are a series of short poems. This is more like each chapter is a poem or a series of poems, but it all flows into one narrative, almost one long poem, more than most verse novels do. I liked the change-up and how it used poetry slightly differently to tell the story.

I really liked the visual detail-- the mikans that marked each chapter, the swirl design on the chapter pages, and the corner sketches that linked previous chapters to later ones, as well as illustrating an important part of the story. It's really subtle and doesn't detract, but we so rarely see visual elements in a purely text novel for teens. It was a very nice (and surprising) addition.

Overall though, this is just a very raw and honest account of one girl trying to come to terms with a horrible tragedy and her feelings of guilt surrounding it. I especially appreciated her moments of denial. They were painful and sometimes fueled the thoughts that the communal blame of the class may be right, but at the same time, it was so honest and raised some very good points.

I've been sharing a poetry-related post every day this month. This past week I shared some ancient Chinese poetry and highlighted some poems from All the Small Poems and Fourteen More.

Today's Poetry Friday round up is over at Random Noodling.

ARC Provided by... the publisher, at ALA Midwinter

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: jacks

The last few days I've been featuring poems from Valerie Worth's Small Poems books. Today's comes from Small Poems Again. All of these are out of print, but have been repackaged in an omnibus with Still More Small Poems (which my library doesn't have) and 14 new ones in the bookAll the Small Poems and Fourteen More.

I love these poems for the way they look at the every day. I also love them for being serious. Don't get me wrong, I love silly poetry, but I think a lot of poetry aimed at kids is silly and rhymes and it's nice to see some variety.

jacks

The way
Jacks nest
Together in
The hand,

Or cupped
Between
Two palms,
Jingled up

And thrown,
Land in a
Loose starry
Cluster,

Seems luxury
Enough,
Without the
Further bliss

Of their
Slender
Iridescent
Luster.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Depature Time

Departure Time Truus Matti, translated from the Dutch by Nancy Forest-Flier

There is the girl who remembers nothing and finds herself in the abandoned hotel with the Fox and the Rat and the mysterious piano music.

Then there is the girl who has moved and carries the guilt of the letter she wrote to her father last year-- a letter of anger that ended up being the last one he would receive before he dies in a swimming accident.

The book alternates between the two stories and it's not overly difficult to figure out how they are related, although it doesn't fully come together until the end.

I wasn't a huge fan of the story with the girl in the hotel. It drags. There's a lot of mystery as to what's going on, but not a lot of suspense, and I ended up not really caring. It also had talking animals, which aren't really my thing, except that they didn't really do animal things and could have been humans so it didn't bother me as much as it could have.

I did, however, enjoy the story of the girl dealing with her father's death. The short chapters cover her life before he died and what's going on now, a year later, plus some of the in-between. Due to their brevity (and present tense voice) they're almost like snapshots of life. They move quickly and her anger and grief and remorse are palpable.

It was this second story that kept me slogging through the first story. As much as I ended up liking the book, the unevenness was hard to get through.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: flamingo

Yesterday, I featured a poem from the collection Small Poems by Valerie Worth. Today, I give you one from Worth's follow-up, More Small Poems. Both books out currently out of print but! luckily for us, have been repackaged in an omnibus edition with other volumes and additional poems-- All the Small Poems and Fourteen More.

flamingo

The
Flamingo
Lingers
A
Long
Time
Over
One
Pink
Leg;

Later
He
Ponders
Upon
The
Other
For
A
While
Instead.


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Zora and Me

Zora and Me Victoria Bond and T. R. Simon

Carrie's best friend Zora has a way with words and stories. Everyone knows that people are people and gators are gators, but when Zora tells of seeing old Mr. Pendir with a gator snout well... there are a few kids in town who will never look at him the same way again.

Zora also has a way of meeting people and befriending them. And, of course, of over-hearing things that adults are talking about.

Things are happening in Eatonville and Zora thinks it's because of the gator-man Mr. Pendir, but the truth is starker and harsher, changing the way the girls view the world forever.

I didn't think I'd like this one-- a novel based on the childhood of Zora Neale Hurston? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I loves me some Zora Neale Hurston and was very, very wary of this, but I had to read it for work.

ZOMG LOVE.

I love the focus on the friendship between Carrie and Zora and how it portrays life in Eatonville. You really get a sense of place and community. I wanted to hang out with them and run to Blue Sink and go swimming and to sit underneath Loving Pine and tell stories and to hide to overhear what the adults talk about in stores...

For most of the book, my biggest complaint was, why does this HAVE to be about Hurston? What about this book makes it about her? It was a such a great story and didn't have to be about her, so it came across as a bit... gimmicky. BUT! Reading the flap copy and backmatter, I see that the story is based on her stories of childhood and that they really mined Hurston's catalog for content, so it did HAVE to be about her.

But, for the sake the story itself, it doesn't. And, in my mind, that's what makes the story so strong.

This is the second book I've read recently that fictionalizes the childhood of an adult author. Unlike The Dreamer,this one really spoke to me. I also think it has wide kid appeal. Readers will love hearing about the gators and the mystery and figuring out what's going on.

I mean, I had no idea how the mystery was going to turn out until it was revealed. NONE AT ALL.

Very well done.


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: sun

I'm weeding the poetry section at the library right now. (Well, to be more accurate, we're weeding all of our juvenile nonfiction, 600-biographies, having recently finished 000-500. I was randomly assigned the shelves that house most of our 811s.)

Anyway, in my scouring of the shelves, I came across three small volumes by Valerie Worth. Each is illustrated by Natalie Babbitt! Small pen-and-ink drawings perfectly accompany small poems about the everyday.

Today's poem is from the first in the series, Small Poems. Although it's out of print, it looks like the entire series has been reprinted into one volume--All the Small Poems and Fourteen More.

sun

The sun
Is a leaping fire
Too hot
To go near,

But it will still
Lie down
In warm yellow squares
On the floor

Like a flat
Quilt, where
The cat can curl
And purr.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Monday Morning

The following is a haiku that I wrote in college. I often recite various variations to myself on Monday mornings. I hope you enjoy!

Ode to my alarm clock: Monday, 7 am

Oh damn your buzzing!
Like a pink bunny, you keep
Going and going.

Nonfiction Monday: Authors Teens Love

These two books were nominated for MG/YA Nonfiction Cybils in 2009.

Vivian Vande Velde: Author of Fantasy Fiction by Candie Moonshower

Amy Tan: Weaver of Asian-American Tales Ann Angel

While these are certainly well-written and informative biographies, they don't have a lot of pick-up-and-read appeal. They're more "report books"-- things libraries should have for curriculum support but not really something that teens are going to pick up for pleasure reading.

I thought the Vande Velde one was a bit repetitive and while it mostly focused on her works for teens, the reading level/tone was a little younger. But I liked that she's included. Vande Velde has written a ton of books with solid appeal and circuluation but is often overlooked.

I love the fact that Amy Tan is included in this series-- she doesn't write books for teens (with the exception of two picture books, all of her titles are for adults.) BUT, The Joy Luck Club is often assigned in schools and with so much of her work focusing on mother/daughter relationships, it has broad teen appeal. (I know I was a huge fan of hers when I was in high school. I still am, but that's when I fell in love with her writing.) My one complaint is inconsistent romanization of Chinese place names. Pick a transliteration system and stick with it! Why have authors and editors failed to do this? It's annoying for those of us who know what's what and very confusing to those who don't!

I think these two biographies are also nice because both authors came to writing later in life. Vande Velde took a class at the local community college to get out of the house one night a week when she was a stay at home Mom, Tan started writing after she realized that her therapist kept falling asleep during their meetings.

The series in general is very readable, contains TONS of photos and author quotations, as well as pull-out boxes with further information about the author, the time period, or the author's books. In the back matter, the books contain a time line, a list of published and upcoming works, a list of awards won, a glossary, extensive source notes (which are marked in the text)* and an index. The Vande Velde volume also has an interview transcript between Moonshower and Vande Velde. The Tan volume has a selection of Tan's quotations on writing and reading.

*Swoon. Endnotes!

Today's Nonfiction Monday round-up is over at Apples With Many Seeds.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

My Baby Needs a Place to Sleep! Week 8

After a week off, it's time to give away more books!

Fill out the form below by midnight (Eastern) on Sunday, April 17 for a chance to win!

You get...

The Daughters by Joanna Philbin (paperback)
The Daughters Break the Rules by Joanna Philbin (ARC)
Bliss by Lauren Myracle (ARC)
Karma for Beginners by Jessica Blank (ARC)



Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: A Song

A Song
by Cao Cao

Wine before us, sing a song.
How long does life last?
It is like the morning dew;
Sad so many days have past.

Sing hey, sing ho!
Deep within my heart I pine.
Nothing can dispel my woe,
Save Du Kang, the god of wine.

Blue, blue the scholar's robe;
Long, long for him I ache.
Preoccupied with you, my lord.
Heavy thoughts for your sake.

To each other cry the deer,
Nibbling grass upon the plain.
When a good friend visits me,
We'll play the lyre once again.

In the sky, the moon is bright;
Yet I can reach it never.
In my heart such sorrow dwells;
Remaining with me ever.

In the fields, our paths crossed;
Your visit was so kind.
Together after our long parting,
Your favours come to mind.

Clear the moon, few the stars;
The crows in southward flight.
Circling three times round the tree,
No branch where to alight.

What if the mountain is high,
Or how deep the sea?
When the Duke of Zhou greeted a guest,
In his service all wished to be.


Cao Cao lived from 155-200 AD and was the warlord who set up the Wei Dynasty of China's Three Kingdoms period. Despite the tenderness of his poetry, he was known for his ruthlessness and his name is used in Mandarin idiom for an equivalent of "talk of the devil."

The poem and biographical details come from Poetry and Prose of the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties edited and translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang.

Book Provided by... my wallet

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Buying Flowers

Bai Juyi was a Chinese poet in the late eighth-mid ninth century. Like many poets and scholars of imperial China, he was also an administrator and court adviser. His poetry emphasized clear language and a lot of his political work dealt with social reform and opposing imperial excess.

I think this shows in his poetry, such as the poem I'm sharing today

Buying Flowers

Almost late spring in the imperial city;
Noise and bustle from passing carriages and horses.
People sad that peonies were in blossom,
Following each other to buy the flowers.
Expensive or cheap, no fixed price, except according to quantity;
Five hundred bright red blossoms cost five lengths of silk.
Overhead were awnings and curtains for shelters;
Around them were bamboo fences for protection.
Sprayed with water and their roots sealed with mud;
When they were removed, they still retained their beauty.
Every family accepted this, none questioning it was wrong.
Then and old villager came to the market.
Head bowed, he sighed to himself, though none knew why.
He sighed because the cost of a bunch of deep red flowers
Was the same as the taxes paid by ten peasant families.


I like the imagery, although I think the last lines hit point home rather hard and could have been done much more subtly to greater effect, but I'm also looking at it several centuries later.

The poem (and the biographical information) came from Poetry and Prose of the Tang and Song, edited and translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang.

Book Provided by... my wallet

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month Poetry Friday! The Surrender Tree

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom Margarita Engle

Rosa

We experiment
like scientists.

One flower cures
only certain fevers.

We try another.
We fail, then try a root, leaf,
moss, or fern...

One petal fails.
Another succeeds.

Jose and I are both learning
how to learn.

Lieutenant Death

The witch
can be heard
singing in treetops.

The witch
can be seen--
a shadow
in caves.

I search,
and I search.

She vanishes,
just like the maddening
morning mists
and the wild
mambi rebels.

They attack.
We retreat.
They hide.
We seek.

The Surrender Tree starts in 1850, when Rosa, a slave girl with healing knowledge, is lent out to the slave hunter and his son. It follows Rosa, the son (Lieutenant Death), and a complete cast of characters throughout the next 50 years as Cuba fights multiple wars in an attempt to win independence from Spain. Throughout these years, Rosa (and her husband Jose) start field hospitals and work to heal those who are wounded or sick. Throughout these years, Lieutenant Death hunts the woman who heals the sick, the woman the girl he met years ago has grown into.

Most of the history and politics of the situation are explained in the backmatter, but they're not important for enjoying the story. The sparse language helps keep the tense mood as characters struggle for independence, survival, and a better future.

I really enjoyed the multiple narratives, clearly defined by naming each poem after the character speaking. It was very useful to see different views on the same situation-- not just different sides of the war, but what Rosa's thinking as she heals people followed by Jose's worries that she's working too hard and pushing herself too far. I especailly loved it later the book, when Silvia was introduced. The characters we started with had gone from children to older adults and the addition of a child's view of the situations was refreshing from the war-weary voices that had come to dominate.

Although I don't speak Spanish, I appreciated that this book is really 2 books in one-- the English edition followed by the complete Spanish translation. Not only does it make the work accessible to non-English readers, but I think this is a book that would work really well in a Spanish class.

And of course, it's the second Poetry Friday in April, which is National Poetry Month! This past week I featured poems from the anthology Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology. This next week will be a grab-bag of things, but check back for your daily dose of poetry goodness.

Today's round-up is over at Madigan Reads!





Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Where She Went

Where She Went Gayle Forman

There's been a reoccurring theme when it comes to this book. I had several discussions about it when it was announced and it's come up in several reviews-- why? Why did the most wonderful If I Stay need a sequel? It didn't!

So, because of that, I wasn't going to read this. BUT, a friend really, really wanted it so I picked up the ARC at midwinter to give to her and well... it was already in my hand, I might as well read it first, right?

Oh my.

I eat my hat.

Maybe If I Stay didn't need a sequel, but this one is so good. There's so much to explore about what happens after your survive-- how you recover and how you move on with your life in the face of such tragedy.

It's been 3 years since the accident that killed Mia's entire family. 3 years since she boarded a plane to Julliard and New York and never looked back.

Adam's band is now famous and embarking on a world tour. He's living with his movie star girlfriend. He knows Mia needed to move on, but she's left a giant hole in his heart and life and he's not coping. He's chain smoking and popping anti-anxiety drugs like nothing else. And, the reporters all want to know what happened that made him write such lyrics on their break out album, but Adam (or anyone in the band) refuses to betray Mia like that. They haven't heard from her in years, but they are still protective and won't let the media make hay out of her tragedy.

Then, with the rest of the band already in London, Adam takes one last day in New York and there's Mia. And they have one night to try to reconnect and deal with everything that's happened.

So you know how If I Stay alternated between the scenes in the hospital and everything that happened before? This one alternates between Adam and Mia's night in New York and what happened in the missing years.

This is such an excellent portrayal of surviving, and the guilt of surviving. I also really appreciated Adam's awkward position-- he knows his loss is nothing like Mia's. Mia just lost her entire family, but... Adam was close to them, too. Adam also lost them, but won't let himself admit that he's also grieving, because his loss isn't as great as her's.

Overall, it was just as good, if not better than If I Stay. Surviving is only the first step and there's so much more that needs to happen before you can start living again.

ARC Provided by... publisher at ALA Midwinter

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Kindergarten at the Transylvania Flavour Restaurant

Kindergarten at the Transylvania Flavor Restaurant
by Fiona Lam

My son interrogates me.
A piece of schnitzel at lunch leads to
the location of Transylvania, next
the Austro-Hungarian empire,
the origins of World War I, then World War II,
the bombing of Pearl Harbor,
and of course, the Atomic Bomb.
In fifteen minutes, breaded chicken
leads to civilian massacre.

Thank goodness
for Sachertorte.

I am a deficient encyclopedia.
I watch him savour his cake and recall
that Britannica set, twelve years out of date,
in its own special bookcase
that my mother bought for $100,
persuaded by the salesman
to give her children the world.
Tiny lines of knowledge gleaned
from anonymous minds teemed
on gold-edged pages bound
between heavy cream covers.

The atlas mapped our existence,
our galaxy, solar system,
layers of civilization marked
by the occasional mini pyramid or coliseum.
How far we'd come. A century per inch
And then the clouds.

I always snuck off with the "anatomy" volume.
Human archeology on transparent pages.
The skin of a naked Adam, a naked Eve,
Next, their striated muscles. The webs
of blood and nerve underneath, then organs
gray brain, pink lung, snaking
sausage of intestines, finally
the ultimate core of bone.
What I sought again and again,
as was sought long ago
in cadavers--by scientists, artists,
da Vinci, as if one could excavate
to discover the architect through
architecture. How it happened

that I am. Here. Eating schnitzel, cake
with my son who was created from my body
and his father's, through our ancestors'--
an Australian navigator routing his plane
over the Pacific to a dance in Winnipeg,
a girl singing her grief in a Saigon teahouse
to a fortune-teller's son, to others
through siege and war, and all the interstices.
I am learning, as my son is learning.
Gathering evidence, as we make it.


All the poems this week have been from the wonderful anthology, Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology, edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Right-Hand Man

Right-Hand Man
by Phoebe Tsang

Waving goodbye to you was like cutting off
my right arm: I bled for days before
I found a doctor to seal the stump with a hundred
slick stitches, red and raw as mosquito-kisses.

At first I didn't want the replacement
he offered me-- it didn't look real
and smelled suspiciously sterile
in the clean-cut style of medical men.

It languished in my room while I mourned
my old arm I'd left wrapped
tight round your heart and wondered
if you'd noticed yet and shaken it off--

In time I got used to the idea. Now
my shiny new graft arm follows the surgeon around
like a well-trained pet. No one would guess
that inside are just batteries and wirse.

Sometimes I wonder how it would be if my dear
doctor ever took his arm back from me
and would I even feel a phantom
emptiness, since I've no blood left to spill:

I used it all up dying for you, thinking
I'd never survive until I realised
I'm better off without a useless limb
that never knew how to hold on to you, to let go.


All of this week's poems have been from the anthology Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology, edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

A Tale Dark and Grimm

A Tale Dark and Grimm Adam Gidwitz

Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.

I know, I know. You don't believe me. I don't blame you. A little while ago, I wouldn't have believed it myself. Little girls in red caps skipping around the forest? Awesome? I don't think so.

But then I started to read them. The real, Grimm ones. Very little girls in red caps in those.

Well, there's one. But she gets eaten.

So begins Gidwitz's tale. He retells some of Grimm's more obscure fairy tales but manages to string them together in one over-arching coherent narrative. The main way he does this is by casting the same kids in each tale-- Hansel and Gretel and what happens after they escape from the witch.

Throughout, the narrator frequently breaks in with warnings to send little kids out of the room and help hints on German pronunciation or other commentary on the story.

It works really, really well as a package. Gidwitz (obviously) keeps in all the blood and gore* and the humor of the narrative interjections really help balance it out so it's not completely bleak and violent.

I really liked how the stories combined to make one story. It wasn't nearly as episodic as it sounds (or could have been). Hand this one to your older fans of fairy tales or those who think that fairy tales are all about pink, glittery princesses. If nothing else, there is a bloody sword on the cover! That should garner a few fairy tale converts.


*Of course, what doesn't get discussed is that although the original Grimm versions are much more dark and violent than the ones we tend to tell children today, the Grimms did a fair amount of sanitizing of the stories as they collected them!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

The Daughters Break the Rules

The Daughters Break the Rules Joanna Philbin

Carina hasn't gotten along with her father since her parents split up. She's always blamed him for the divorce and all he cares about is his business and his money.

After he forces her to drop all of her extra-curriculars, she leaks a damning memo to the press. As punishment, he puts her on a strict allowance, cutting her off from the funds she's used to. Carina doesn't mind-- she doesn't need his money, but she does need to raise some funds and quick so she can go skiing with the boy she likes.

I wasn't a fan of why her dad cut her off from the money. In the fight after Carina leaks the memo, her father lists all the thing she gives her (all material) and she retaliates with "Is that all that being a father means to you? Paying for stuff?"* And so he stops paying for stuff. That was... kinda missing the point. It's not like he starts paying more attention to her life of anything, he just stops funding it.

I also thought the ending with her dad was a little rushed.

BUT! Things I *did* love. I loved how much Carina really did rely on her dad's money. She had not idea how much she spent without thinking about it. I also really enjoyed the way she found a new friend and learned about everything there is to do in New York for free.

She never really was forced to learn some sort of "oh, other people have it so much worse than me" kind of lesson, nor is there a "best things in life are free" lesson. Which I appreciated. Because she does see a whole nother side of Manhattan with free concerts and carnivals and things to do without turning it into a learning moment. I mean, it is a learning moment, but it's really subtle and handled really well.

The friendships, fun plot, and learning small lessons without preachiness is what makes me like this series and what made me run out and buy the first book in the series because I really, wanted to read it.

I can't wait until we get Hudson's book, The Daughters Take the Stage in May.

*quoted from the ARC, so it might not be exact

ARC Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: 2 Poems

Sorry All!

I've been sick so I missed yesterday's poetry post. To make it up to you, I'm giving you 2 poems today!

Medusa
by Anindita Sengupta

Did you look in the mirror one day and
find that you had grown used to it? The hair--
gleaming little coils, each one tensile
as rope; the tongue quick and sharp as sunlight;
eyes vast in that thin face, deeper than earth.

Had you almost forgotten what you looked
like once, in an earlier time, when you were
still untouched by love, still free as a
tidal wave, brazen and full of joy like
that girl leaping in to meet the sea?

Or did you like too much the blood that burns
through your veins now, magical and potent,
the heady insanity or being
utterly and totally unloved?
Do you see them in dreams--your stone eulogies?

Perhaps, on rain-soaked nights you also
stare at passing cars and wait for the churn
to subside; the dreadful, ancient passion
to return to slumber; fumbling in the
dark, curse softly. Perhaps, you even weep.



Resting
by Kavita Jindal

I'm not getting up
when you call
I don't want to
do your bidding

I'll just lie here
chase some flies
with my eyes

You can be
forgiving.



All of this week's poems are from the most wonderful anthology, Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes.

Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

National Poetry Month: Magic Flute

Magic Flute
by Anna Evans

My daughter is modeling a tune
she has heard, pressing
her fingers into the clay
of the instrument.

With each attempt
she smoothes the brow
of the music
into truer form.

It is years since I thought
I could do this: hold a worldly
pattern in my head
and feather a creature from it.

She almost has it perfect now:
a bird, solid with her breath,
vibrating at her will.

A sparrow,
thin-wining the treetops
in search of an updraft.

Let her charm the hawk,
his hidden smoke
in the sudden dusk.



This week I'm sharing poems from Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes

Book Provided by... the publisher for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Poetry Month: Sin

This week, I'm going to be sharing poems from the most wonderful anthology, Not a Muse: The Inner Lives of Women, a World Poetry Anthology edited by Kate Rogers and Viki Holmes. Collecting poems from all over the world, in English and translation, it roughly divides the poems into categories: oman as Creator, Woman as Family, Woman as Archetype, Woman as Explorer, Woman as Myth Maker, Woman as Home Maker, Woman as Landscape, Woman as Lover, Woman as Freedom Fighter, Woman as Keeper of Secrets, Woman as Keeper of Memories, and Woman Ageing. Various allusions and references are footnoted with explanations in the back. There are also author biographies. This is an anthology that I've dipped in an out of many times.

Sin
by Rafa Matar, translated by Sayed Gouda

A sunbeam stole
All the snow in the world--
Frostbite burned its toes.
It dreamt then of the sun's glory.

It dreamt of possessing it--absolutely,
Of veiling the sun so the world does not see,
Of shielding this sin from the light of day
And with the sun, having its own way.


Book Provided by... the publisher, for review consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.