The Dyerville Tales

I have been waiting to share this book with you for a long time.  I read it almost three months ago - I was lucky enough to win a copy in a Walden Pond Press giveaway (side note: Walden Pond Press is a super-cool publisher with lots of other great books too!).  But I don't like to blog about books that I love until you are able to read them too - it doesn't feel fair to tempt you like that!  So now The Dyerville Tales has been out for a few weeks, and I'm ready to talk about it!

You might recognize the author's name from Juniper Berry, which I loved, here in this post.  I was surprised at how much I loved Juniper Berry and again at how much I loved The Dyerville Tales.  Both of Kozlowsky's books have a mood in common - one of building uncertainty and fear.  They also both look at the mysteries of the adult world with a steely, clear-eyed gaze.  Very few adults escape these books whole.  The building tension, combined with the look at how adults compromise themselves, is one of the things I love best about Kozlowsky.  But his books can also keep me up at night, worrying about what might happen next.

The Dyerville Tales begins with Vince Elgin.  He lives in an orphanage, because his mother died in a house fire when he was ten years old.  Vince believes that his father escaped the fire, somehow, and is still alive.  He believes this because while Vince's mother died in the hospital room next to his, after getting Vince and herself out of the house.  Vince knows that "the authorities never discovered a single trace of him in the ashes of their home.  No bones, no teeth, not even the gold ring Vince had been promised.  And for Vince, this changed everything.  This was where he found his hope." (p. 11)

Vince isn't sure exactly why there was a fire, nor is he really sure about the events leading up to the fire.  He remembers how scared his parents were the night before but has lots of questions about what actually happened.  But the younger children in the orphanage love to hear most of the tale of Vince's arrival at the orphanage, and so he retells it (and relives it) over and over again.  It is full of magic to the other children, because it has parents in it, parents who care about Vince's safety, who want to protect him from the evil that surrounds them.

When Vince goes to the orphanage, after his mother's death and his father's disappearance it's because the only relative he has left is his grandfather.  His grandfather was believed to be crazy and was living in a nursing home.  When this story begins, it is with a package that arrives from Dyerville, the town where his grandfather lived, addressed to Vince.  In the package, a letter informs Vince that his grandfather has passed away, and that the funeral will be in a week.  Enclosed in the package is a book - a collection of tales his grandfather told in his nursing home, much as Vince has told stories in the orphanage.  Vince knows he must get to the funeral.  After all, it is his father's father.  And if Vince has any chance of seeing his own father again, it will be there, at the funeral.

The director of the orphanage tells Vince that there is no possible way he can go to the funeral - the orphanage doesn't have the money or the resources to get him to Dyerville, which is a long way from the town where the orphanage is located.  Vince is determined, though.  He escapes from the orphanage with the help of a friend, Anthony.  "Vince heard the commotion but told himself not to look back.  He had to concentrate on climbing.  He thought of what would be waiting for him at the end of this journey.  In Dyerville he would find his father.  A new life would be waiting; all he had to do was make it to the other side of the gate.  Suddenly it didn't seem so impossible." (p. 52)  And he makes it.  It's just one little step in what could be a very long journey.  But as he clears the fence around the orphanage, "somewhere deep within his mind there was now a spark glowing.  It was small, but it wanted to grow." (p. 53) I don't want to ruin the suspense of the well-plotted story.  You just need to pick it up.

But here's what I will talk about.  This book isn't just about stories and telling them (although clearly that is a major focus, considering what I've already told you about Vince and his grandfather).  It feels just like a fairy tale set in real life.  After all, there are not one but two epic journeys written about here.  Each time Vince opens his grandfather's book, there is a picture that helps add to the drama of Vincent's journey.  Both stories have fairy tale elements in them - things that are almost too incredible to be true.  And yet they are.  There are also some elements of reality that are fairy tale scary, too.  Here is one of those moments: "Her breath was colder than the wind.  With her lips touching his skin, and in a childish voice, she began to sing: 'Oh, I have the moon in me.  And everything beyond.  I am a black hole, you see.  And I'll eat me some vagabond.'" (p. 144)  Just writing that quote totally out of context made the hair on my arms stand up!

There are, of course, lots of parallels between both journeys -both Vince and his grandfather are 12 when their journeys start.  When the director of the orphanage brings Vince the package, she asks Vince "' You were named after him.  Am I right?'  Vince nodded.  'My parents said I looked just like him too.  Almost identical.  I don't know.  I didn't see it.'" (p. 24)  Both boys are on their own, trying to solve a mystery of their own lives.  And of course, when the book begins, they are both stranded in places (the orphanage or the nursing home) without any family connection.  There are so many magical things that happen in this book to tie the two together, over and over.

I was truly spellbound by this book, as you should be by any true fairy tale.  It has adventure, magic and leaves you questioning  Please pick it up - you'll dive right in.

The Dyerville Tales.  M.P. Kozlowsky.  Walden Pond Press, 2014.

I won this ARC in a giveaway, without expectation of a review.

Mary Engelbreit's Nutcracker

I am a Christmas book junkie.  I have Christmas stories from my childhood and books that I have collected over the years from book sales and library donations.  Every year I give each of my daughters a new Christmas title (this year I found a favorite from my library storytime days called A New Suit for Santa for Gloria and Strega Nona's Gift for Frances).  We have so many Christmas books that every year I wrap 25 Christmas stories and we open and read one each day and we still have plenty left to enjoy at other times.  Yes, say it with me: I am a Christmas book junkie.

So when HarperCollins sent me Mary Engelbreit's Nutcracker to review, the girls and I were excited.  We have several great versions of The Nutcracker at home, and I wondered how this one would stack up against some of our favorites.  I actually really like this version, but I am not surprised.  If you don't know Mary Engelbreit, she is a designer who dabbles in many artistic endeavors.  She has created greeting cards, fabric, home decorating books, a magazine and many other things based on her darling, vintage illustrative style.  Now in the past few years Engelbreit has begun issuing her own versions of some famous children's stories (Mary Engelbreit's Fairy Tales, Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose) as well as writing her own original stories (at our house, The Queen of Halloween is a favorite).

Engelbreit has an amazing knack for distilling the plot into a storyline easy for readers to follow.  The Nutcracker can be confusing.  After all, there are two distinct sets of events - Marie meeting the Nutcracker and battling with the Mouse King, and then the trip to Toyland.  But here, with just a few lines of text on each page, Engelbreit keeps what's important and focuses it.  Her version isn't long (it probably took us ten minutes to read aloud), but it has all the elements we love - magic, fantasy, action and even some romance.  And instead of seeing all the action swirling across a stage in a ballet performance, where there are often many things going on, Engelbreit keeps everything told through Marie's perspective.  It allows children to really identify with Marie, with her love for the ugly Nutcracker, her anger at Fritz, her bravery, her awe.  Readers see it all through Marie's wide eyes.

This is a retelling of the original version, created by E.T.A. Hoffman in 1816 as The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. As such, there is no mention of ballet in this version, which may serve as a contrast with other versions.  Having experienced the ballet both with Frances and on my own, I know the storyline can sometimes be forgotten in the face of glorious ballet performances and swirling costumes.  But there is still dance in this story, especially in Toyland.  Engelbreit has paid homage to the movements and dance of the characters subtly throughout.  This works because so much of this story is experienced through its illustrations.

Mary Engelbreit's illustrative style evokes the illustrations of old, and this book is no exception.  On the jacket flap of this book, Engelbreit explains that she is influenced by old picture books, and you can definitely see it here.  It's in Herr Drosselmeyer's top hat, the style of houses, the cars and the toys pictured throughout.  For those who are aficionados of Engelbreit's work, many of her regular motifs and characters appear here as well.  The old-fashioned look of the book is also tied to the old-fashioned candy scattered throughout many pages.  There are peppermints, lollipops, gumdrops and ribbon candy encircling Marie and the Nutcracker on the cover.  As the book goes on, candy sprawls everywhere - it overlaps frames, spills onto streets and of course pops out of presents.  It adds a lush feeling to the story, and one that many children will delight in.  Adults, too, will enjoy seeing the old-fashioned details that make this book unique.

Engelbreit uses multiple frames to help tell the story.  Pages often have several different illustrations to pore over.  On the page where Marie and the Prince enjoy the dancing in Toyland, there is a framed illustration in the middle of the page with Marie and the Prince eating...you guessed it, candy.  There are spot illustrations of more food and international dancer fill the rest of the page.  Your eye moves from spot to spot following the line of dancers across the page.  Even though Engelbreit puts a lot on each page, the illustrations do not feel busy.  Instead they convey interest and movement.  This can subtly evoke the whirling dance of the ballet. 

There is one page where there seems to be on odd choice in the illustrations.  During the battle between the mice and soldiers, the text mentions that "Marie was so frightened she fell and bumped her knee."  Yet the illustration focuses on the mouse army.  At the bottom of the page is Marie's head, oversized, peeping from the edge of the page.  There's no evidence of her fall.  In a book where there is limited text and every word counts, either that fact should have been eliminated or it should have been shown to make the fight even more dramatic.  But this is just one small misstep from a veteran illustrator.

I hope you still have room under your tree for one more Christmas title.  This one is fun for young and old readers alike.  Mary Engelbreit's Nutcracker reminds me of Christmas candy - sweet, nostalgic and full of flavor.  Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Mary Engelbreit's Nutcracker.  Mary Engelbreit.  HarperCollins, 2011.

This book was sent to me in galley form by the publisher in hopes I would review it.

Paul Galdone Classics

When I was working in public libraries, I loved recommending Paul Galdone’s books to parents and students.  His versions of classic fairy tales, folk tales, and nursery rhymes are perfect for young children as an introduction to the tales.  Galdone had a talent for distilling the story down to its simplest parts while injecting it with lots of personality and humor.  So I had to guard our library’s copies of the Galdone titles carefully, since they were so great, but sadly out of print.  We mended them over and over, taped the covers and hoped they wouldn’t go missing.  Now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has made my year by reissuing four of Galdone’s titles in the Folk Tale Classics series.  They are gorgeous editions – hardcover books, with gold highlights on the front covers.  The endpapers of all the titles have clover scattered across them (with one title also offering lucky ladybugs throughout the clover).  I am beside myself with excitement, and want to celebrate these books with you.

First is the nursery rhyme Three Little Kittens.  Since it is a rhyme, it is the shortest of the four texts.  However, with just a couple of lines of text per page, the illustrations have to give the standard text its personality.  The pictures are filled with bright pastel colors and mischievous kittens.  And when the mother cat scolds the kittens for having lost or dirtied their mittens, she practically vibrates with annoyance.  Galdone also uses the illustrations to heighten and incorporate the text – the three little kittens chirp their meows in a word balloon above their heads.  This picture book, unlike the others in the series, does not have full-page spreads.  The illustrations are boxed in black, with white space filling the page above and below.  But Galdone uses this limited space effectively with crisp, clear illustrations to help young readers interpret the text and read along.

Next it is three more of something…The Three Little Pigs.  This story is the longest one of the series.  Galdone uses his trademark humor to keep the story full of energy and interest.  He doesn’t skimp on the traditional facts of the story – the wolf eats up the first two pigs fair and square.  There’s no attempt to hide them in each other’s houses or have them pop out of the wolf’s belly.  The third pig does trap the wolf in his pot of boiling water and then eats him for supper, but the only carnage is the wolf’s tail sticking out of the pot.  The wolf is depicted as ferocious and devious, but he never looks scary or gruesome.  There is a lot more text on each page of this story, but the text and illustrations flow well together.

Here’s three more of a kind – The Three Bears.  And just from the title, you can see that Galdone’s sympathy is squarely with the bears, not Goldilocks.  In fact, Galdone’s Goldilocks is unattractive, with a pug nose and gapped teeth.  It is the bears who are warm-looking and kindly, at least at the beginning.  Galdone uses the text very cleverly in The Three Bears.  When the baby bear is speaking, it is in a tiny font, and so on.  So not only does the reader see the small bowl, but they can connect the small bowl with the baby bear’s voice in the text.  Even a pre-reader who has heard the story at least once can identify what is going on.  When the bears begin shouting and roaring, the font continues to grow larger, giving readers an indication of the seemingly benign bears’ true power.  But once Goldilocks is gone, they are back to their usual domestic routine.

And finally, my favorite of the four stories is The Little Red Hen.  On this one, Galdone really goes for broke.  The design of the pages are really exquisite – my favorite is the first time the cat, dog and mouse refuse to work.  Each animal is lying comfortably on their own bed in previous spreads.  Galdone creates this spread so that the reader’s eye travels from the cat’s face peeking over a windowsill to the center stage dog spread out on a hammock to the other corner, where the mouse’s ears peep through another window.  Their positions are highlighted by the text, as “Not I” is centered over each snoozer.  This is why Galdone is such a genius!!  And another time they refuse the hen, each animal’s face (suitably lazy) fills the O in the phrase “Not I!”  Again, it brings personality to the story and gives life to what could have been stock characters.

In the few weeks we’ve had these books checked out from the library, I have come across Gloria numerous times, retelling the stories to herself.  At 2 ¾, she is young enough to be the perfect audience for Galdone’s stories.  And she loves them as much as I do.  I want to own my own copies.  Please, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, bring back more Galdone!!  And people, go buy your own copies of these tales – they are classics and you won’t go wrong with them.  These books stand the test of time.

Three Little Kittens.  Paul Galdone.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1986.

The Little Red Hen.  Paul Galdone.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, copyright renewed 2001.

The Three Bears.  Paul Galdone.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992.

The Three Little Pigs.  Paul Galdone.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1970 1998.

Borrowed from the Lewis & Clark Library

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror was a book I have heard about for more than a year.  I read reviews and pre-publication discussions about it, I purchased it for the library I worked for, my library consortium added it to their mock list...and still I didn’t actually read it.  After 2010 was over, Mirror, Mirror was on a best of the year list, and that finally spurred me to read it.  Now that I have, I am angry I didn’t read it earlier so I could have advocated for this book all year long.

I am a big fan of poetry, but Marilyn Singer has really done something magical in this book.  Singer uses fairy tales as her framework for this collection.  But she uses a unique form of poetry in this book, called reversos.  Singer uses the same words in two poems, set back to back on the page.  These poems have the exact same words, but the second poem is an exact reversal of the first.  Some of the punctuation may change to reflect the different meanings of the words, but otherwise the words are exactly the same.  It is truly jaw-dropping to see how carefully these poems are constructed.  I can’t imagine the work that went into adding and subtracting words to get the balance and meaning just right.

Not only are these poems exquisitely constructed, but they also turn familiar fairy tales on their ear.  Singer amazingly takes fairy and folktales that we all recognize and reverses the tale just as she does the words of the poem.  For instance, in the pair of poems called “Cinderella’s Double Life”, Cinderella begins the pair of poems bemoaning “Isn’t life unfair?” before describing her stepsisters gaily going off to the ball.  At the end of the second poem, where Cinderella is the belle of the ball, dancing gaily with the prince, she asks “Isn’t life unfair?” in more of a triumphant manner.

I was so awestruck by Singer’s work that I can’t even name a favorite poem in this book.  However, Frances can.  She loved “Longing for Beauty” about Beauty and the Beast.  I actually didn’t set out to share this book with Frances.  But she happened to walk by as I was reading it.  Frances immediately sat down and made me start at the beginning and read it all to her.  While we have read plenty of books with rhyming text, I’m not sure we’ve read an entire book of poetry, and I didn’t think she would be interested through the whole book.  But she was transfixed.  She correctly identified the tales from the pictures and titles and listened intently.  When Gloria walked by after we finished, she told Gloria excitedly “Gloria, look at this book!  It has Cinderella in it!”.

Part of my daughters’ interest in this book was definitely the illustrations.  We have loved Josee Masse’s illustrations before, and once I began to recognize her technique in this book, I felt she was a perfect choice to illustrate these poems.  Her paintings on peeling, striated, cracked wood bring an ethereal, old-fashioned touch to these poems.  She incorporates familiar elements into the paintings (the gingerbread house laden with sweets in the Hansel & Gretel poems), but her characters have a spark of independence, competence and whimsy about them.  They are modern and old-fashioned at the same time.

I can’t rave enough about this book.  It is perfect and I can’t believe it wasn’t more popular with award committees last year.  I would have voted for it over and over!

Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse.  Marilyn Singer; illustrated by Josee Masse.  Dutton Children’s Books, 2010.

Borrowed from Lewis & Clark Library