Watermark Teacher Feature – February 13, 2007

In this issue:

BOOK NEWS
Valentine books in the Wichita Eagle
Fresh titles

UPCOMING EVENTS
One-day Sale, 25% off nearly everything: Sunday, Feb. 18

Two-day closing for inventory: Feb. 19 & 20

BOOK REVIEWS
2007 Coretta Scott King Award-honored picture books:
* “Moses” by Weatherford & Nelson
* “Jazz” by Christopher and Walter Dean Myers

New volume in a first-rate graphic novel series:
* “Bone 5: Rock Jaw” by Jeff Smith

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Valentine books in the Wichita Eagle

Last week, the Wichita Eagle newspaper ran two articles by writer Suzanne Perez
Tobias that listed great Valentine’s Day-related books for young readers. The
pieces include several Watermark favorites and quoted our very own Beth Golay.
In case you missed them, here are links to the stories on the Eagle’s Web site:

* “Sweet stories of love and friendship” (books for younger children):
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/living/people/family/16622964.htm

* “Books for the young and young at heart” (teen and young-adult novels):
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/entertainment/books/16629458.htm

Let us know if you have your heart set on any.

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FRESH TITLES

These newly released books could only be fresher if we outfitted our shelves
with those nifty produce-sprinklers they have at the grocery store.


“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” by Brian Selznick (Scholastic, 0439813786,
$22.99 in hardcover) Lavishly illustrated in feathery-gray pencil drawings,
Selznick’s innovative new youth novel is a cinematic fairy tale. Twelve-year-old Hugo is an orphan living in the walls of a Paris train station in the 1930s; he fixes clocks, swipes food, and slowly works to complete his late father’s greatest project: the restoration of a clockwork man at a writing desk. Hugo is convinced that if he can make it work, the figure will write out a last message from his father. The style of this book is amazing, and it will delight highly visual readers--both with its storytelling and with its wonderful air of having been delivered from another place and time. (For ages 9 to 12)


“Cracker” by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum, 1416906371, $16.99) Brand-new in
hardcover, this middle-reader’s novel from Newbery-winner Kadohata follows the
career of two unusual partners during their military service in the  Vietnam War: Rick is a young, untested soldier out to “whip the world,” and Cracker is his bomb and trap-sniffing German shepherd. Kadohata splits the narrative between the two characters and gives a very cool look into the life and training of a professional dog--while also offering an unusual angle on the tried-and-true war story. Animal lovers and military enthusiasts will be thrilled. (For ages 9 to 12)


“Anatomy of a Boyfriend” by Daria Snadowsky (Delacorte Books for Young
Readers, 0385733208, $16.99) High school senior Dominique is a biology whiz and
a science quiz champ, but she’s never had a boyfriend before Wes, and
he’s never had a girlfriend, either. Together, they hit all the bumps and snags
in a new relationship, and Dom describes each experience through the filter of
her treasured anatomy textbook. This first novel by Snadowsky is like the second
coming of Judy Blume: its teenage characters deal very frankly with their
emotions and their first foray into a sexual relationship. It addresses many
common teenage fears in language that is explicit without being exploitative.
(For older teens)


"Split Screen: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies / Bride of the
Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies" by Brent Hartinger (Harper Teen, ISBN 0060824085, $16.99) Hartinger writes great teen novels with strong-voiced
characters and plenty of twists. His latest follows two friends as they
volunteer as extras in a monster movie and deal separately with difficult
boyfriend and girlfriend issues. And here’s the twist: “Split Screen” is a
flip book; read it one way, you get Russell’s boyfriend troubles; flip it over,
and you hear Min tell her side, including the story of her new girlfriend. Both
narrators are smart, funny characters trying to make tough decisions and live up
to their ideals. (For older teens) Read a full review here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0207-004.html

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UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS

One-day Sale, 25% off Store-Wide: Sunday, Feb. 18.

From 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. this Sunday, everything in the store (except food)
will be 25% off its regular price. (Multiple discounts are not applicable.) Come
enjoy a day of coffee, pastries, and manic browsing!


Two-day closing: Monday & Tuesday, Feb. 19 & 20.

Watermark Books & Café will be closed these two days for a store-wide inventory
system upgrade. (So come to the sale on Sunday: every book you purchase is one
fewer we’ll need to count!)

For a full listing of Watermark events, including book clubs and art openings,
visit the Events page of our Web site at:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/events.html

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BOOK REVIEWS

The following two picture books were among those recently honored by the Coretta
Scott King Awards, which commemorate the life and work of Mrs. King and her
husband Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The first book, “Moses,” received the award
for illustration (as well as a Caldecott honor), and the second, “Jazz,”
received an illustration honor.

For more info on the awards, visit this page on the ALA Web site:
http://www.ala.org//ala/emiert/corettascottkingbookaward/corettascott.htm


“Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom” by Carole Boston
Weatherford, illus. by Kadir Nelson (Jump at the Sun/ Hyperion Books, 0786851759, $15.99)

This picture-book version of the life of Harriet Tubman uses quietly striking
painted illustrations and unusual typography to tell a story both about Tubman’s
journey to freedom and about her relationship with God. Starting the day before
she leaves her place as a slave on a Maryland  plantation, the book follows Harriet on her first dangerous trip north as she travels at night and sleeps rough in the woods. The shadowy pictures on these pages are washed in secret blues and greens and lined with sundown yellow.

Each step along the way, Harriet prays and hears God speak to her in return:
this supportive heavenly voice is depicted in large capitals that whisper mightily across the book’s pages and sometimes weave, wave, and wind about the pictures. At her lowest point, when Harriet collapses with torn and bloody feet, the words encircle her where she has fallen; and when she hides for days inside a cramped potato hole, the words expand to fill the tiny space and give her hope. After a journey of many miles, Harriet arrives to the free soil of Philadelphia and to a page awash in gentle sunlight.

But very soon, pulled by her love for her family in the South and heartened by
God’s voice, she goes back into the dark--back nineteen more times--to guide
hundreds of captive people out from slavery. This moving and beautifully pictured narrative is followed by a concise biography of Tubman’s life, which serves as a capstone to Weatherford and Nelson’s carefully crafted tribute to the life of an almost legendary American hero.

(For ages 4 to 8)

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“Jazz” by Walter Dean Myers, illus. by Christopher Myers (Holiday House,
0823415457, $18.95)

Acclaimed young-readers’ author Walter Dean Myers collaborates with his
award-winning illustrator son Christopher Myers on this colorful and poetic
evocation of jazz music. While touching on the careers of luminaries like Louis
Armstrong and King Oliver, the book concentrates on displaying how jazz
developed from its first toehold among the blues and ragtime music of New
Orleans, to overseas successes during World War I, and on through the rise of
swing, bebop, and cool jazz in the U.S.

On each page, Christopher uses rich color--hot red, midnight blue, sassy yellow,
emerald green--to paint musicians who bring to life his father’s free-verse
lines. Against a backing of indigo and sweet plum, a trumpeter blows:

“It’s a field-holler melody
Dressed in a three-piece suit
A lifetime of could-have-beens
Sliding through a silver flute
It’s our song”

And later, a piano player lets loose with a different music:

“Piano:
Sweet and gentle, so surprising
Music fills us, hear it rising
Like a charming angel choir
Reaching, preaching souls on fire”

The words here are full of rhythm and movement, and the images have an easy energy: it’s impossible to read “Jazz” without tapping a toe. The book is a joy to chant aloud, and it’s a great find for students searching for poems  to share out loud. And if it inspires a new interest in jazz (and it will), the short timeline and jazz glossary included in the back will help direct young readers as they go searching for more.

(Intended for ages 4 to 8, but it will likely appeal more to ages 9 to 12)

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“Bone 5: Rock Jaw” by Jeff Smith (Scholastic GRAPHIX, 043970636X, $9.99)

Cartoonist Jeff Smith’s “Bone” is the “Little Miss Sunshine” of kids’ comics, an
Indie favorite that’s fun and smart and that has plenty of dramatic heft. Smith,
who has worked as an animator for Disney, began self-publishing the series in
the early 1990s and soon gained worldwide acclaim, including nearly two dozen
major awards. Recently, his work has become a serious feather in the cap of
Scholastic’s GRAPHIX imprint of youth graphic novels, which is now releasing
“Bone” in nine full-color books for the nine-to-twelve-year-old set. The fifth
and newest volume, “Rock Jaw,” has just been published.

The story of “Bone” kicks off when the three Bone cousins (big-nosed
Casper-looking guys with outsized cartoon personalities) are run out of their
hometown of Boneville and chased into a mysterious forested valley full of
legendary heroes and dragons. Before long, they come under the protection of a
brave young girl named Thorn and her no-nonsense guardian, Gran’ma Ben, who
races cows (no not like jockeys race horses; see, she races *against* the cows;
it’s totally silly.)

Things stay quiet for while (cow races and all), but life in the valley is soon
upset by the appearance of giant rat-like creatures who focus their attentions
on Gran’ma Ben’s little farm. The Bones and their hosts quickly get swept up in
an age-old war between the rat-creatures and the secret, unseen dragons that
have protected the valley’s inhabitants for generations.

But that is just the bare-bones story: the great charm of “Bone” includes both
this slowly expanding epic fantasy and about a million moments of side-splitting
humor. Smith is the number-one cartoonist for setting up visual jokes and for
employing long-running gags that build up and up until they have readers (even
grown-ups!) rolling on the floor. (A great example from “Bone” is the hapless
duo of evil rat creatures: one is a real baddy who truly wants to chew our
heroes to pieces; the other would be just as happy digging into a nice homemade
quiche. They’re awesome. And really, really dim.)

“Bone” is great when read just on a surface level of exciting chases, funny
bits, and hair-breath escapes, but it also invites young readers to dig a bit
deeper. Like C.S. Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia” or Tolkien’s “The
Lord of the Rings,” the story in “Bone” has a rich, fudgy ripple of myth running
through it. It also has plenty of crunchy plot twists, which the characters
themselves discuss: they’re always trying to puzzle out just what’s going on
with the ancient feud between the rats and the dragons, and young readers will
have a great (and covertly educational) time doing the same.

“Bone” is a series that kids, parents, and even entire families can enjoy
reading and talking about together. Smith draws his characters well--in both
words and pictures--and he includes many clever nods to other stories. One main
character, the true-blue hero Phone Bone, constantly carries his beloved copy of
“Moby-Dick” with him, and he takes every opportunity to convince his friends
that it’s the best book in the world (which is true). Such apt, clever touches
have helped make “Bone” an instant classic of children’s writing: it feels
timeless, and it appeals to all ages.

Bone is recommended for ages 9 to 12 and older.

Visit Scholastic’s Web site to download a PDF of the “Bone” teacher’s guide:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/tradebooks/boneville_using_graphic_novels.pdf

Reviews by MDB

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Past reviews and archived issues of Teacher Feature can be read on-line on
the Watermark Web site at: http://www.watermarkbooks.com/teach.html

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XOXOXO

Mark David Bradshaw

 

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