New picture books: what's in a name?

I will admit that even after years of bookselling, and of course calling myself a discerning reader, I still make occasional snap judgments of books based on covers and titles. Even while I am trying to train myself not to, there are still those glorious moments when I read a title like The Boy Who Cried Ninja, and I am immediately, irrevocably in love with it, no matter how terrible it may be. Fortunately, these new picture books live up to their great titles, and then some.


If the title - complete with speech bubble! - alone hadn't grabbed me, the illustrations of Alex Latimer's The Boy Who Cried Ninja would have held me tight. Reminiscent of Oliver Jeffers style, these characters have such funny, endearing qualities as tiny stick legs and gaping mouths indicating speech. Don't let the title fool you into thinking this is a heavy handed morality tale, simply placing ninjas, sunburned crocodiles and time-traveling monkeys in lieu of wolves; it is more capricious than cautionary.

Just a few days ago a customer had been looking for books about stuffed animals and I wish we had had I Must Have Bobo! by Eileen and Marc Rosenthal in then! Not only am I apparently weak-kneed for It-Wasn't-Me kitty stares, I also have a soft spot for appropriately exclamatory titles. (Don't even tell me you too don't want to exclaim LET ME DRIVE THE BUS!, with various emphases)
Willy and his stuffed, beshirted monkey Bobo do everything together, from coloring to investigating potentially mean bitey-bigs. Unfortunately, Willy's conniving cat Earl also likes Bobo. The gentle humor and comforting sweetness of this story reminds me of A Sick Day for Amos McGee, with the added humor of a plush-filching cat named Earl, of all things.

This next book has a tongue-twister of a title: Where's Walrus? written and illustrated by Stephen Savage. This cheeky walrus escapes from the zoo, a la Good Night Gorilla and A Sick Day for Amos McGee, with a bumbling, mustachioed zookeeper hot on his tail, so to speak. With vibrant colors and a modern art feel, both children and adults will be amused by the walrus's plain sight hiding places and visual gags. I am particularly fond of the mermaid fountain scene and the cover's nod to Edward Hopper. Maybe there will even be a sequel with a certain red and white tourist hat for the walrus to try on...

My last latest picture book love has an understated title with an enticing cover: Renata Liwska's Red Wagon not only depicts one of my favorite animals (a hedgie! In the eponymous wagon!), but these animals look comfortingly familiar because Liwska was the illustrator of the much-talked-of adorable The Quiet Book. This tale of imagination and friendship is the definition of a picture book, with a perfect tension between the text and illustrations. My favorite spread is from the line "She was almost down [the hill] again when the wagon hit a rock!", where the wagon turns into a rocket ship with the fox and bunny friends as astronauts and the raccoon pal becomes a three-eyed alien raccoon in a UFO! Three eyed raccoons get me every time.

Dave the Potter and You Can Count on Monsters back on shelves

Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave written by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Brian Collier, has been reprinted and is back in stock! Dave the Potter won a 2011 Caldecott Honor as well as the Coretta Scott King Illustrator award.


Richard Evan Schwartz creative factor tree book, You Can Count on Monsters, was featured on NPR in January before its publication and is now available.

The catch all news update, including: release dates, pop up dogs, Fibonacci rabbits, nerds...and McNuggets?

The subject line almost says it all, doesn't it? In my usual weekly news catch up, I've found a few highly entertaining, and even informative, news and videos! Enjoy.

A release date for Martin Scorcese's 3 D adaptation of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret has been set for November 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving. If anyone can do justice to this spectacularly cinematic novel, Scorcese can.

I can not get over how mind-meltingly awesome this video is. When these two power M's combine...cleverly engineered, wittily written pop-up dog cards are made! Watch Matthew Van Fleet on the Martha Stewart Show, and be amazed. I'm going to mix authors here, but Martha, did you know there's a bird on your head?!

The UK's Guardian has an Emily Gravett slideshow up, showcasing close-ups of spreads from her many rich, humorously dark picture books and a few comments on their process and creation. Very satisfying insight into an artist/author's world, I only wish there was a page for The Odd Egg.

Maybe you've already heard, but the publishing house founded by Dave Eggers, McSweeney's, is starting a children's imprint, to be called McMullens! Despite my strange subconscious impulse to visualize McNuggets alongside a stack of snarky children's books, this can only bring good things to the universe!

For ongoing increase-of-awesome, I always refer to John and Hank Green's vlog brothers (video blog) website, Nerdfighters. John Green, yes, of Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns fame, with his equally talented, hilarious musician/Ecogeek blogger brother, Hank, banter back and forth every few days, talking about telescopes, giraffes, politics, small town cemeteries, among other things. You can start with the most recent blogs, or How To Be a Nerdfighter, which is a vlog-manifesto-of-sorts, or how I got addicted to the brothers, which still remains one of the funniest videos I've ever encountered, How To Make Boys Like You.

March Book Club

Last night we gathered around Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels in our chapter book room and had a rich and lively discussion. We covered everything from what makes a book YA instead of grown-up, what makes a book feminist or not, and we hit themes of motherhood, growing up, bears, cookies and magic. It was a fantastic time and we're pumped to get together next month to discuss the 2011 Newbery winner Moon Over Manifest. This one promises to provoke just as much discussion. Here's the description:

The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I’d seen only in Gideon’s stories: Manifest—A Town with a rich past and a bright future.

Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was. Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.” Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.

Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool’s debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption.

So stop by the store and get your copy at 20% off, and join us for snacks and discussion on March 10th at 5 PM. The book is recommended for ages 12 and up, so all ages from there on up are encouraged to attend.

Another joyous day for Amos McGee! And chickens!

Oh my gracious zookeepers and farm animals! Two of the American Library Association awards books are back in stock: Caldecott winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead and Caldecott Honor Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein.

My latest love: Tales of the Madman Underground

In celebration of our 400th blog post, I'm going to rave about my latest young adult book obsession, Tales of the Madman Underground. This is one of those rare books that as soon as I had finished it, I turned back to the first page. I just wasn't ready to let Karl Shoemaker go! I had to tear myself away from a complete second read so I could mail my copy to my friend who teaches fiction writing...but maybe she'll send it back if I need Karl again.


Tales of the Madman Underground won John Barnes the Printz Honor in 2009 (Jellicoe Road took the Medal. What a year!). The Printz Medal is a teenage level Newbery Medal, awarded for exemplary young adult literature. In my mind, it also means you can give this book to both teens and adults - a crossover medal, if you will. And I certainly would give this book to either teens or adults. I am going to be pushing this book just like I pushed Anna and the French Kiss and Dairy Queen when I first discovered them, and still do. They are just that good.


Karl begins his senior year with "Operation Be Normal," hoping to escape his usual fate of being sent to therapy: "They might as well have tattooed CRAZY on your forehead. The next year every teacher would be watching you for the first weird thing you did - and has there ever been a kid who never does anything an adult considers weird?" (p 14). Of course, to be normal, Karl has to hide his exhaustion from four jobs, ignore taunts about his drunk pseudo-hippie mother, and most complicated of all, dissociate from his fellow therapy "Madmen." This 500 page feast covers only 5 days, but his magnetic voice, fueled as it is by anger and ferocious loyalty to the Madmen, pulls you through the many hilarious and heartbreaking tangential back stories. The plot unravels magnificently, Karl's present story line flowing into memories from childhood, middle school, or last summer, in a style that reminds me of Everything Is Illuminated and other adult titles. Occasionally I lose the narrative thread or am thrown by a few ungrammatical lines, but then Karl delivers those potent one-liners I remember from Holden Caulfield, the kind you underline and dog-ear: "Pain only matters when it happens to someone important." (p 70). Even if the writing occasionally struggles, Karl's voice carries it through. Like most teenagers, Karl is most funny and poignant when he isn't trying to be funny, so some of the dialogue clunks along while his painting of a scene rings true: "I thought how normal kids were spending their Friday nights after a game. Probably having pizza, or road drinking, or making out. Whereas I was standing on Mug Me Street in Toledo, Ohio, with a baseball bat and a purse." (p 324). I don't know about you, but I'd rather be on Mug Me Street with Karl for these 500 pages than having pizza with "normal" people.

Critics have compared this to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Catcher in the Rye, and I agree that here's a modern classic in the making. Even if this book is set a mere twenty years after Catcher in the Rye's publication, Karl is a modern Holden, bursting with anger and love, cynicism and the desire for things to be different. His language is accessible (no excess "phonies" to trip over) and his problems contemporary, even as he describes the bell bottoms of the "Christian jocks." Like Markus Zusak's I am the Messenger, Tales of the Madman Underground has that particular blend of humor and realism, in which the only way to get by is to laugh at life's painful absurdities. And for that, I would follow Karl anywhere.

"It wasn't that funny, but I laughed. There wouldn't be much laughter in the world if people didn't like each other, because there sure as shit aren't that many good jokes." (p 33).

We're here! And we have books!

Yes, indeed, we are still open during the snow, and eager to help you find those books to cozy up with for the rest of the 10, 15, or 20 inches we may get this week!

If you can't get your car out of the driveway without at least an 8 point turn (I feel your pain!), or the bus comes every three hours, you can always order books from our store website or call us to ship something to you. We do ship anywhere in the world!

Our February 10th book club choice, Tender Morsels, is now available online as well. This beautiful, brutal book will definitely make for a good discussion. Sign up for our email list by emailing blog@curiousg.com or come by Thursday February 10th at 5pm for the next meeting.

There's something about Wednesdays

During my usual Monday morning news catch-up, I saw this amusing snowfall Shaq-o-meter from Boston.com. I keep having to remind myself that we do live in New England and it is winter, so snow is expected, but I just wish the walk to the bus stop was a little more manageable! This Tuesday through Wednesday we're expected to get anywhere from 12 to 20 inches! At least the folks from the Boston Globe have a good sense of humor about it, too. Compared to Shaq O'Neal's 7'11 height and the 1995-1996 record 102" of snow, we're doing OK, with only 60"! It's all about the perspective. And the Celtics, apparently.

In children's books and movies news, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is being adapted into a film: Harry Potter's Hermione actress Emma Watson and Percy Jackson's eponymous actor Logan Lerman are slated to star as Sam and Charlie respectively, with author Chobsky to direct.

Speaking of Harry Potter, there have been a few photos leaked from the Deathly Hallows part 2 set. Squee! I am so conflicted: I want it out sooner so I can see it, but I want the Potter thrill to last longer.

I'm a few days behind the announcement, but The Hunger Games movie has set a release date: March 23rd, 2012! The director is Gary Ross, but despite much blogging by fans, so far no cast has been announced.

I have said here a few times how much I adore the feminist pop culture magazine Bitch Magazine, and they have rocketed even further in my esteem with their latest "From the Library" segment: a list of 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader, from classics like Judy Blume's Forever and Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy to contemporary One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia and Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I love so many of the books on the list, and am ashamed I haven't read all of them! You can bet I will be selecting future reads from this list.

I never knew that one of my favorite science fiction/military thriller books, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, is in the works to become a movie! The website io9 announces the director will be Gavin Hood (of X-Men Origins: Wolverine) , with writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who were behind Transformers, Star Trek, and Fringe. I hope for their success! I am really curious how this would play out on film - will Ender be as complicated, both likable and frightening, with film narration?

While on io9, I also found these jaw-dropping concept designs based on Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer's The Phantom Tollbooth from artist Lizzie Nichols. Of course, I had to follow the link back to her blog, where there are more incredible imaginings of the Doldrums, Digitopolis, Tock the Watchdog...and even some Lewis Carroll characters!

Different Looks for Different Books

We here at the George have major book-crushes on the Penguin hardcover classics that have recently been released. Taking motifs from the story, the books are repackaged in a fresh, thematic and beautiful way that makes a great gift, or a nice edition to a long-lasting library. They sell for $20 each.

For another "novel" re-imagining of a beloved book represented in this series, even Mass native Louisa May Alcott couldn't avoid the "... and Zombies" treatment with the recent publication of Little Women and Werewolves.

My favorite in the Penguin series is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. For a video-re-imagining of the whole Brontë clan, Reader, watch this video.

And while we're in the realm of re-imagined covers for classics, one really should check out graphic designer M. S. Corley's Penguin-ized versions of the Harry Potter books. Unfortunately Scholastic has exclusive rights to publishing all things Harry Potter (I bet there's an unemployed editor previously of Penguin kicking him or herself over this rejection) so these covers will never see the shelves of a bookstore. But a Penguin fangirl can dream, can't she...

Steam is so hot right now

The term steampunk has been around for almost 30 years, but very recently the trend has exploded in YA and middle grade novels. Steampunk is a genre that embodies many tropes, which may account for its popularity. A book can be steampunk if it's pseudo-Victorian and there is air-travel (preferably by dirigible), as in a classic progenitor of the genre, Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, or a book can be steampunk if it depicts a dystopian future in which society uses strange machines (with lots of cogs and rivets!), as in du Prau's City of Ember. The term itself is a subgenre of alternative-history science fiction in which a thought experiment is played out: what if the Victorian era had been run on steam? The fun anachronistic gadgetry that spans the genre makes for some fantastical story possibilities. Of all the strands of steampunk there are, here are some staff favorites!

Really Victorian/Alt-History
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
George staffer Michelle picked this when it was hot off the presses: During an alternative WWI, fugitive Prince Alek, of the mechanical-driven Clankers, meets Darwinist Deryn, making a temporary alliance in the Alps. With military secrets, disguises, and bio-engineered whale zeppelins, this is a new exciting direction for Westerfeld. Leviathan is followed by a second book entitled Behemoth.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The now-canonical trilogy has a lot of gadgetry, dirigibles and hot air-balloons but even MORE food-for-thought. I wrote a staff pick for the first volume, The Golden Compass, this last year after finally finishing the whole series: In Lyra’s world, everyone has a daemon, which is like your soul in animal form. Lyra discovers a conspiracy to take them away from kids, and she has to stop it. This action-packed story with a strong heroine and a lot of philosophical themes will be one you reread over and over again!

Really Gadget-y

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Another Michelle staff pick: In order to make the world “safe,” Incarceron, a vast thinking prison, was created to contain the criminal or mentally ill. Finn, an epileptic prisoner, finds a crystal key to communicate with a girl Outside – but can he escape before Incarceron thinks, and acts, for itself? This British import blends action, philosophy, & mystery.

The Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby
Three unique characters that you will enjoy getting to know intersect and soon join together like cogs in a machine to harness their magical powers and save the day.




Really Fantastic-y

Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce
George staffer Shara H. picked this one: Flora, a prisoner of her own home, is required to keep the rundown Crackpot Hall (with its 11,000 rooms) tidy until she is forced to join the military after her 14th birthday. Seeking a way out of her many responsibilities, Flora attempts to restore a banished butler, free a pirate on death row, and bring her family back together in the process, but ultimately finds more trouble than relief.

Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne-Jones
Another pick from Michelle: Sophie is a quiet, hardworking girl in her family’s hat shop – until the jealous Witch of the Waste turns her into an old woman. With creaky knees, white hair, and the feisty friendship of a fire demon, Sophie develops some spunk, which she’ll need if she wants the mysterious wizard Howl to break her curse. After this, watch Miyazaki’s film!