Book Review: The Cloud Spinner By Michael Catchpool and Illustrated by Alison Jay

In this lovely, dreamy fable, a wise young boy spins clouds into cloth under the stricture "Enough is enough and not one stitch more." One day a greedy king spies his cloud-woven scarf and wants more, more, more, despite the young boy's warnings. When the king's greed dries up the clouds, it's up to the observant princess and the wise boy to set things right.

Released as Cloth From the Clouds in Britain, this story has a universal appeal for both boys and girls, and works beautifully for a read-aloud. Catchpool employs the stricture from the story, using just enough words to convey the story and "not one [word] more." Further, he understands the need for key (non-annoying) repetitive phases that keep the story anchored, and delivers his message of conservation in a gentle but effective manner. Brilliantly done.

 The only book we've read previously by Michael Catchpool is his Where There's a Bear, There's Trouble, which was (and still is) universally adored by all three of my girls as toddlers. (Susanna, at five, still loves it and I still see the older two pulling it out of the bookshelf to read themselves on occasion.)

Alison Jay's deceptively simple, gorgeous folk art illustrations pair perfectly with this story. The colors are so beautiful. My children delighted in the cloud shapes and the smiling hills. (See the one on the cover?) I have loved her art since I first saw it on the original covers of Shannon Hale's Bayern series (The Goose Girl, Enna Burning and River Secrets. Click on the links to see the original covers.)

Bottom line: This book was definitely worth the purchase and I know it will be read again and again in the Neal house.


I nominated this book for the 2012 CYBILS in the Fiction Picture Book category.

Book Review: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser

From the back cover: "Nancy Clancy has everything she needs to be a super sleuth (that's a fancy word for detective): She has a glamorous magnifying glass complete with rhinestones, a totally professional pink trench coat, and a sleuthing partner with awesome code-breaking skills--her best friend, Bree.
  Now all she needs is a good mystery to solve. But when crime strikes right in the middle of her classroom, will Nancy have what it takes to crack the case?"

Little girls who have grown up with the Fancy Nancy picture books and early readers will rejoice to learn that Nancy has grown with them, and is featured in her first chapter book and solving crime in her own inimitable Fancy Nancy style. (I think she is in second or third grade, although I can't find any place in the book that mentions her age or grade.)

When my girls spotted this in Costco a few months ago, they both instantly clamored to be the first to read the book. Olivia won the coin toss and was completely tickled by the Nancy Drew mentions. (Nancy Drew is Olivia's favorite super sleuth.) I had to stop her from reading parts out loud and ruining it for Karina.

It's a quick read. Both girls read it in short order, and both really enjoyed it.

And they're both anxiously awaiting the next book, due out in January 2013, Nancy Clancy: Secret Admirer.

Published in 2012 by Harper Collins.
Ages 6 and up.

Book Review: The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

From the publisher: "Unscathed from the wars, Gervase Frant finally returns to his father's estate to claim his title as the new Earl of Stanyon. But his stepmother's resentment and his half brother's open disdain put a chill on Gervase's welcome. Now he must establish himself as the new head of the house . . . and ignore his family's rising hostility.  Then Gervase's eye is caught by a lovely young woman -- the same woman already much in favor with his half brother. Now the brothers face direct competition as they bid for the lady's attentions. But as Gervase struggles to maintain a gentlemanly balance, he begins to find himself the victim of repeatedly cruel accidents. Soon it becomes increasingly clear that someone wants the new Earl of Stanyon dead . . ."

Georgette Heyer is one of my favorite authors. I've read most of her books and reread my favorites periodically. I couldn't remember reading The Quiet Gentleman before, but as I got into it, I started remembering things that were going to happen. But it's not going on my list of favorites by Georgette Heyer. Obviously not very memorable for me, I find this one of her most boring books, but on the whole it's not a bad read. The characters were marvelous but I thought it suffered from pacing problems. The mystery aspect of the book (who is trying to kill the main character) was quite boring and predictable. The romantic aspect was very understated, almost nonexistent, except at the last part of the book. The characters were the only reason I kept reading.


Originally published in 1951.
My copy was published in 1952 by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Book Review: Mrs Noodlekugel by Daniel Pinkwater

From the publisher: "Nick and Maxine live in a tall building with one apartment on top of another. So when they look out their window and see a little house they never knew was there, of course they must visit (especially when their parents tell them not to!). Going through the boiler room, they’re amazed to find to a secret backyard with a garden, a porch, and a statue of a cat. And they’re even more amazed when that cat starts to talk. . . . Welcome to the world of Mrs. Noodlekugel, where felines converse and serve cookies and tea, vision-impaired mice join the party (but may put crumbs up their noses), and children in search of funny adventures are drawn by the warm smell of gingerbread and the promise of magical surprises."

This book would have been ideal for my newly emerging readers:  it has a kid-appealing story with just enough fantasy, folly, and humor (and plenty of charming black-and-white illustrations by Adam Stower) to keep a beginning reader's attention, in addition to great cover appeal (for girls, anyway.) But be aware that this book has a limited readership, given that the text is overly simplistic (quite Dick-and-Jane-ish, just in longer chapter form.) It is, in effect, a long beginning reader, when the child has mastered the basics but still needs some help. 

The problem is that the publisher's info page of the book makes no mention of the ages for which it's suited.  Upon further research online, it is listed for the 5 to 10 age group, but again, just be aware that this is for young beginning readers. They will likely be the only ones excited about the story. (Both my older girls tried reading the book. My nine-year-old brought it back to me after a couple of pages, declaring it a book for babies and utterly annoying. My seven-year-old persevered to the end, declaring it a cute story, but written for "little kids." She hadn't heard her sister's scorn of the book, as she was asleep the night her sister tried to read it.)


Published in March 2012 by Candlewick.

Book Review: Deep in the Forest by Brinton Turkle

Deep in the Forest. Brinton Turkle. 1976. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. Ages 3 and up.

A bear cub stumbles across a cabin in the woods and wreaks havoc, Goldilocks-style, in this wordless picture book. Although the illustrations are rendered in dark, autumnal colors, the charm of the pictures wasn't lost on my young daughters. They laughed at the cub's antics, and were delighted when he safely escaped back to his mother. Personally, I like this version of Goldilocks, since it makes more sense for a bear cub to wreak that kind of careless havoc than for a little girl to do so.

A short rant about book lengths and lack of editing

I've got about a dozen books in various stages of reading progress, and while they aren't awful, they're not holding my interest very well (hence the dozen), mostly due to the fact that they are needlessly, freakishly, disproportionately long for the plot, action, and characters.
Is it just me or do authors seem to think they need to write epics? Long, droning tomes in serious need of editing. What has happened to editors? Doesn't anyone value pithy, substantive writing anymore? Please, editors, for the love of all that's good and right, wield those red pens with more fervor! Stop the madness!

Recent Reads

Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen (2012). What bookish girl doesn't fall in love with Robin Hood at a fairly young age? I've been fascinated by the legend of Robin Hood since I first read Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of his exploits when I was eleven or so. I loved that book and reread it often. Years later when my parents took us to England for vacation the summer after I turned fifteen, we decided we had to go to Sherwood Forest. It was there that I learned, to my supreme disappointment, that Robin Hood was just a legend. (I wonder why I thought he was real?) This book is a reworking of the Robin Hood legend from the standpoint of a knife-wielding, female "Will" Scarlet, disguised as a boy. I'm not sure how I feel about this book. For sheer entertainment value, it did pretty well. With a few exceptions, I stayed interested in seeing what was going to happen. I mostly liked the characterizations, although I personally don't think the strength of Robin's character features very clearly. Little John features a little too much. I didn't care for him. The story has good action, but the plot is a little lacking, and had too many repeats of the same incident (Scarlet sneaking into somewhere to snoop or free people and getting beat up/wounded in the process), just tweaked a little. I also didn't like the love triangle going on. I think it was relied on too heavily as a plot device, and the many jealousy scenes got old. (I get so tired of love triangles in YA fiction.) But for all my little peeves, it was a very decent read.

My cousin Suey of It's All About Books brought this one to my attention. (Clicking on the website link will take you to her enthusiastic review.)

For a better retelling, read Robin McKinley's The Outlaws of Sherwood. Apart from the Pyle book, it's probably my favorite. It's suitable for readers as young as eight.

Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax (2005). I read this one on the recommendation of a speaker at the last homeschool convention I attended. The book discusses the differences in the male and female brains and the author draws some conclusions about the ramifications of those differences. I'm not sure what I feel about it. I think that the common trend for gender-sameness in public schools is problematic, especially for boys. (By "gender-sameness" I mean the idea that there are no physiological or chemical differences -besides the obvious glandular and hormonal ones- in boys and girls and how they learn best.) I'm not sure I would draw the same conclusions he does in some instances regarding what to do about those gender differences, especially in regard to those children he terms "anomalous." But the book makes for fascinating reading.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. (Unabdridged Audiobook, read by Esther Benson) I had only a vague recollection of this book, centering exclusively around Pippi herself, her little monkey Mr. Nilsson, and the horse on the porch. I do remember one of my elementary school teachers reading it aloud, but I couldn't for the life of me remember anything of plots or stories. Since it's a childhood classic, I have long been toying with the idea of reading it aloud to my girls, but other, more interesting books have always gotten in the way. We found the audiobook at the library and decided to get it to listen to during our about-town errands. Esther Benson does a good job with the narration, but I have to confess that I'm not a fan of the story. It's like nails on a chalkboard. And I know why I remember almost nothing about it. There's not much there to remember. My feelings can be summed up by my seven-year-old Karina's comment, "For all her travels, she's not very smart, is she?" For all her wildness and shenanigans, she's also not that interesting. I can only attribute the book's lasting impact being due to the wildly outrageous, non-conformist main character, because everything else about it, including the "adventures," is boring. And why, for being as old as she is, does she never learn from her social gaffes? Her wide-eyed, quasi-innocent, "isn't-this-jolly" preciousness (as my grandmother would have said) is nauseating and irritating. Her wildly braggadocio lies aren't even very interesting. This is one book I won't be adding to our personal library. If my children end up loving it down the road ('though they don't seem very keen on it at present) they can buy it with their own money. So there.