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Watermark Teacher Feature – December 12, 2007
In this issue:
BOOK NEWS
Newsflashes:
* Kai Meyer caps trilogy with “The Glass Word”
* Eoin Colfer talks about his new book “Airman”
Fresh Titles:
* “An Orange in January” by Dianna Hutts Aston
* “Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share” by Kevin O’Malley
UPCOMING EVENTS
* Shakespeare Aloud. Wed., Dec. 19. 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
* KMUW Literary Feast. Fri., Jan. 4. 7 p.m.
* Kathy Patrick Reading & Book Signing. Sun., Jan. 6. 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
* Sara Paretsky Reading & Book Signing. Fri., Jan. 11. 7:00 p.m.
* John Burnham Schwartz Reading & Book Signing. Mon., Jan. 28. 7:00 p.m.
* Sweet Potato Queen Jill Conner Browne - Talk & Signing. Tue., Jan. 29. 7 p.m.
FEATURED REVIEWS
* “Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow” - an essential graphic novel
* “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” by Rafe Esquith - now in paperback!
READ PRO QUO
* Free books and advance galleys on offer
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This and previous issues of Teacher Feature are available on the Watermark Web
site. You can read on-line, complete with pictures and clickable links, here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/teach.html
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Greetings and salutations,
This issue of Teacher Feature is all about the future, including lots of
upcoming events and exciting new titles just on the horizon. January will bring
a string of great author events to Watermark, including the return of Kansas
native Sara Paretsky and the ever-hilarious Sweet Potato Queen, Jill Conner
Brown. Start planning to attend now, and enjoy a very cool start to your New
Year.
Some of my most-anticipated new titles are nearly here, so check out the
Newflashes and Featured Reviews below to stay in the loop. We’re happy to take
pre-orders, and you’ll be guaranteed the first copies out of the box.
And seriously, have a good look at “Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow.” I
think it’s probably the year’s strongest graphic novel for young readers--or
readers of any age!
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NEWSFLASHES
Kai Meyer caps trilogy with “The Glass Word”
To complete the Dark Reflections Trilogy that he began with “The Water Mirror”
and “The Stone Light,” German youth author Kai Meyer will soon release “The
Glass Word” (Margaret K. McElderry, 9780689877919, $16.99, ages 9 and up), and I
for one cannot wait. This is a perfect series for young readers enthralled by
the “The Lightning Thief” and its sequels or by Cornelia Funke’s excellent
“Inkspell” books. It’s also great for kids who are perhaps a bit too young for
“The Golden Compass.” The story is set in a world of living stone lions, spooky
mermaids, and young heroes and heroines out to save the world from armies of
invading mummies. “The Glass Word” will be released January 1 -- just in time to
put holiday gifts certificates to use!
Eoin Colfer talks about his new book “Airman”
Eoin Colfer, Watermark favorite and author of the bestselling “Artemis Fowl”
adventure series, recently talked with Publisher’s Weekly about his upcoming
youth novel “Airman,” which is due out January 2. The book blends historical
fiction and science fiction to tell a story of a young Irish boy who invents an
airplane ten years before the Wright Brothers get theirs off the ground. Read
the interview here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6509423.html?nid=2788
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FRESH TITLES
Picture books
“An Orange in January” by Dianna Hutts Aston, illus. by Julie Maren
(Dial, 9780803731462, $16.99, ages 4 to 8) From the author of “An Egg is Quiet”
and “A Seed is Sleepy” comes this new picture book that offers a simple and
lyrical lesson on the life cycle of food plants, perfectly timed for winter. The
book follows its titular fruit from blossom stage to ripeness and from tree to
truck as it makes its way to market and into the hands (and lunchbox) of a young
child. Read review
“Gimme Cracked Corn and I Will Share” by Kevin O’Malley (Walker Books for
Young Readers, 9780802796844, $16.95, for ages 4 to 8) This picture book relates
the cornball adventures of a rooster named Chicken who, along with his buddy
George, goes in search of a buried treasure of sweet golden cracked corn. Along
the way, the two birds encounter all manner of figurative language, puns, and
corny jokes, providing young readers with fun examples of language that’s often
much more than it’s cracked up to be.
Read review
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UPCOMING WATERMARK EVENTS
Shakespeare Aloud. Wednesday, December 19. 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
This reading group meets every other Wednesday to read Shakespeare's works aloud
together an hour at a time, no experience required. The group is led by Mark
David Bradshaw. On this date, we’ll begin a new history play: Henry VI, Part 1.
(Note: That’s Henry #6, not Henry #4.) Students are welcome, and they can pick
up discounted copies of the play in the bookstore. Feel free to call us with
questions at (316) 682-1181
KMUW Literary Feast. Friday, January 4. 7:00 p.m.
The January book will be “The Last Night at the Lobster” by Stewart O'Nan.
Literary Feast participants will enjoy dinner together, with a menu specially
created by our Watermark chef, then take part in a book discussion over dessert.
Tickets are available at the Watermark book counter or by calling (316)
682-1181. Places are limited, and we recommend purchasing your ticket well in
advance. Read more about the book and author at
http://www.kmuw.org/LiteraryFeasts.html
Kathy Patrick Reading & Book Signing. Sunday, January 6. 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Kathy Patrick is a Eureka native and the founder of Beauty and the Book (the
nation's ONLY bookstore/hair salon), which is located in Jefferson, Texas. She
is also the ringleader of the Pulpwood Queens book club and literacy movement.
Ms. Patrick will visit Watermark to read and sign her new book “The Pulpwood
Queens' Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life,” a resource book for readers
and book clubs that contains lists of favorite reading selections. Her book is
due for release on January 1, 2008. Read more about the author and her ways
on-line here: www.beautyandthebook.com
Sara Paretsky Reading & Book Signing. Friday, January 11. 7:00 p.m.
Kansas native Sara Paretsky will read and sign her new novel “Bleeding Kansas.”
Set in and around present-day Lawrence, the book features a plucky
fifteen-year-old heroine who maneuvers through a close-knit rural hierarchy and
an army of varied characters: Hasidic Jews, evangelical Christians, a Wiccan, a
haunted man, and more. Paretsky combines her own Kansas upbringing with
historical references to Quantrill’s Raid and other events to create an
authentic and entertaining Kansas story. Visit Paretsky on-line at
www.saraparetsky.com
John Burnham Schwartz Reading & Signing. Monday, January 28. 7:00 p.m.
John Burnham Schwartz, author of “Claire Marvel” and “Bicycle Days,” will be at
Watermark for a reading & signing of his new novel, “The Commoner.” Steeped in
the traditions and rituals of Japanese royal life, “The Commoner” is one woman's
story from humble beginnings to Empress -- and the cost of such a
transformation. Exploring themes of sacrifice, duty, and isolation, Schwartz
lifts the veil of secrecy from the Imperial Family to reveal the heart beneath
the ceremonial robes. (The book is set for release on January 22. Pre-order by
calling Watermark at 682-1181.)
Sweet Potato Queen Jill Conner Browne - Talk & Signing. Tue., Jan. 29. 7 p.m.
The Sweet Potato Queen is coming back to Doo Dah! And this time she'll tell us
all about her new guide: “The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for
Fun and Profit.” The event will take place at The Orpheum, 200 N. Broadway
(doors open at 6:00 p.m.). Tickets will be available at Watermark Books & Cafe
beginning December 4 in exchange for a donation to The Orpheum.
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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FEATURED REVIEWS
“Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow” by James Sturm & Rich Tommaso
(Hyperion/ Jump At The Sun, HC: 9780786839001, $16.99; PB: 9780786839018, $9.99)
This excellent comic-book-style biography portrays the life of peerless pitcher
Satchel Paige from the viewpoint of a fellow Negro League baseball player whose
parallel story shines a light on the numb and crushing experience of being a
second-class citizen in early twentieth-century America. In perfectly paced
words and illustrations, Paige’s oddball, grandstanding career arrives like a
cool drink of water that reminds his fans of their absolute worth and equality.
In 1929, our viewpoint character, Emmet, enjoys a brief, hopeful time playing in
the Negro League, which he has to leave when an injury ends his baseball career.
After returning to his hometown of Tuckwilla, Alabama, he does the back-breaking
work of a sharecropper indebted to a family of White landowners. Still, he
follows Paige’s ongoing rise to baseball stardom as the renowned prince of
pitchers travels the country playing exhibition games against players of all
colors.
Sturm and Tommaso use the comics medium to perfection as they depict Paige’s
idiosyncratic playing style. As they explain, the lanky pitcher was a master of
the head game, of taking his time, working his jaw, and conjuring distractions
for his batters. Their well-paced picture panels show it best: the pause, the
wind-up for a fastball, the flailing limbs, and then--BOOM! The ball already
safe in the catcher’s mitt, and a strike called. Each pitch sequence is
excellent, and together they create a tense and exciting atmosphere that
perfectly conveys why Satchel Paige was such a sensation.
Emmet and Satchel’s stories intersect once again when Paige’s team comes to play
an all-star game against the hot-shot sons of Emmet’s insufferable landlord, Mr.
Jennings. Rolled up in that game is a lifetime’s worth of resentment and double
standards: Emmet has struggled to give his son, Emmet, Jr., the opportunity to
attend school and thereby avoid being pulled into sharecropping, but his
landlords have done their best to crush that hope, using threats of violence to
keep the boy down on the farm. (There’s a full two-page spread that shows the
day Emmett, Jr. must join his father in the cotton fields, and it is one of the
most heartbreaking and soul-shaking images I’ve ever seen.)
When Satchel Paige soundly bests the arrogant Jennings boys before the amused
eyes of all Tuckwilla, Emmet feels his heavy burden of injustice lighten just a
bit: “For the first time since I played ball,” he says, “since Emmet, Jr. was a
baby, I felt somethin’ on the inside. I remembered the type of man I am.”
“Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow” is an uncommonly fine graphic novel, just
like “Houdini: The Handcuff King,” the previous volume in the fledgling series
of graphic-novel biographies from Hyperion Books and the Center for Cartoon
Studies. Both books tell exhilarating stories of famous Americans, and each
deserves a place in all library collections serving young readers. (Future
volumes will focus on Henry David Thoreau and Amelia Earhart.)
Read a review of “Houdini: The Handcuff King” by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0607-009.html
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“Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56” by
Rafe Esquith (Viking Adult, 9780143112860, $14.95)
Since this bestselling book will be released in paperback December 18, I thought
this the perfect time to reprise this review that first ran last summer. (Let
your friends and loved ones know that this books is perched on your wish list,
or invoke your educator’s discount and treat yourself.) You can find the review
on-line here:
http://www.watermarkbooks.com/review0607-010.html
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READ PRO QUO: Free books for a song!
Here's what is on offer this week:
* One advance galley of “Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow” in paperback.
To request a book, send an e-mail with a quick bit about one of your recent
reads, along with your name and contact info, and the item you're requesting to
me at: markdbradshaw@hotmail.com
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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/teacharchives.html
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Later educators,
Mark David Bradshaw
Click here for the Teacher Feature Archives
Peruse
back issues of teacher feature since its inception in April
2003.
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