Title: Didi Dodo Future Spy - Recipe for Disaster
Author: Tom Angleberger
Genre: humor
Similar books: The Bolds by Julian Clary
Claude in the City by Alex T Smith
Rating:
 |
| cleverly silly |
Summary (provided by publisher): In this series opener, Koko Dodo the cookie chef has a big problem. Today is the day of the royal cookie contest, and someone has stolen his top-secret fudge sauce! Luckily, a spy enters the scene just in time (or rather, crashes in on her roller skates): Didi Dodo! This might be Didi’s first case ever, but she has a daring plan to help Koko. Koko would prefer a safe, simple, sure-to-work plan, but without another option, he and the amateur sleuth take off on a wacky caper full of high-speed chases and big belly laughs that could only come from the mind of the inimitable Tom Angleberger. Each book in the series will focus on a food-related mystery.
My opinion: Angleberger certainly has a talent for developing unique characters. In the case of an early chapter book like this one, unique characters are what make it enjoyable and memorable. The mystery of the stolen fudge sauce follows a pretty obvious story arc but it includes some great elements. First we have this wild adventure with crazy exploits, constantly adding to the cast of characters. Secondly, there's a message about fair play and competition. Not just the standard message about not cheating, but the idea that a contest where the same competitor always wins entertains no one. Not knowing, anticipation, is what makes a contest worth doing/watching. Making that the final conclusion elevates this above the standard early elementary story.
More information: Recipe for Disaster releases March 19.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
Title: Stand on the Sky
Author: Erin Bow
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Everlasting Nora by Marie Miranda Cruz
Running on the Roof of the World by Jess Butterworth
Rating:
 |
| compelling |
Summary (provided by publisher): It goes against all tradition for Aisulu to train an eagle, for among the Kazakh nomads, only men can fly them. But everything changes when Aisulu discovers that her brother, Serik, has been concealing a bad limp that risks not just his future as the family's leader, but his life too.
When her parents leave to seek a cure for Serik in a distant hospital, Aisulu finds herself living with her intimidating uncle and strange auntie—and secretly caring for an orphaned baby eagle. To save her brother and keep her family from having to leave their nomadic life behind forever, Aisulu must earn her eagle’s trust and fight for her right to soar. Along the way, she discovers that family are people who choose each other, home is a place you build, and hope is a thing with feathers.
My opinion: The life of nomads is so different from what most of us experience, that exploration alone makes this worth reading for most of us. A close look at the ins and outs of life in another culture is always uplifting. But while those little details will be foreign to most readers, there's a universality to the larger messages. Aisulu's culture undervalues her because of her gender. And because she doesn't fit a traditional gender role, she feels rejected and invisible within her own family. Her family crisis actually opens up her world. In seeking solace in raising an eagle, she begins to challenge her societal norms. And this challenging she begins to view those around her through anew lens. She begins to value other outsiders, to find a secondary family. It's a great read in and of itself and would make a great starting point for a group discussion, especially if you paired it with a book set in the US with similar themes.
More information: Stand on the Sky releases March 5.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
A Wrinkle In Time
I wrote previously about my less than pleasant viewing of the first movie version of A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn't terribly long after that experience that I heard another movie was in the works. I had some hope, given it's bigger name cast and big budget, but had managed expectations.
Let's start by pointing out the obvious: A Wrinkle in Time is a complex, theoretical story. It takes the reader through multiple dimensions, talks about physics and time travel, dips into philosophy, and has heavy religious and moral overtones. This makes it difficult to represent on film, especially for the mass market. Necessarily, changes get made. Some have little bearing on the overall tone of the story, even if they are startling or disappointing (like removing Aunt Beast - I love the character but she can be removed without harming the plot). I want to take a look at three changes and their impact on the movie.
1) The nature of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit. In the book, they are described as looking like crones, our standard idea of witches. They are craggy, wispy, and a bit disconcerting. The movie version of the Mrs is more spritely. They're like fairies, but more substantial. This is primarily a cosmetic change but also impacts their general perception.
2) Camazotz. In the book, the planet Camazotz is eerie. It's disturbingly uniform. This is it's menace. The scenes on Camazotz are meant to make us uneasy. The movie makes Camazotz a little "off" but more enticing. Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace are seduced by IT rather than being beaten down by the sameness.
3) The religious elements. L'Engle's writing isn't Christian, per se, but has definite religious overtone. Various religious texts are quoted throughout the novel and religious figures are pointed to as the heroes of the light. The movie quotes, instead, artists and scientists and the light bringers. While this makes it more accessible to the general public it does take away from L'Engle's message.
Here's the thing about A Wrinkle In Time: it's complex. It is intentionally opaque. We're not supposed to understand it in a single reading. L'Engle believes in the importance of asking questions that we can't answer. She values asking questions, thinking about them. I think that's the main point of the book, to get us thinking about big questions. As such, it makes it difficult to film. Movies are generally built on clear answers, solid conclusions. Two people may read the book and take completely different things from it, conclusions that are different from the one in the movie. And for the viewer who hasn't read the book, there's a lot of weird, unexplained occurrences that are hard to understand without the book for context. It's a much stronger effort than the last version but it simply can't hold a candle to the novel. Give this movie a view, but always go back to the book if you really want to understand the story.
Flower Talk by Sara Levine
I can't say as I'd ever put much thought into why flowers come in different colors. I knew that certain creatures pollinated specific flowers. I didn't realize just how much color played into that selection. As a picture book, this is a very brief overview and I'm sure color selection is more complicated than is represented here. Still, it's a solid introduction to the idea, walking us through the general assumptions we can make about pollination based on color and scent alone.
Flower Talk releases March 5.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
I had kind of a busy weekend so there wasn't a lot of extra time for crafting. I did manage to decorate an Altoid tin with a quote from A Wrinkle In Time. Not sure what I'll be storing in this little tin, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Title: Pay Attention, Carter Jones
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Sidetracked by Diana Harmon Asher
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
Rating:
 |
| simply lovely |
Summary (provided by publisher): Carter Jones is astonished early one morning when he finds a real English butler, bowler hat and all, on the doorstep—one who stays to help the Jones family, which is a little bit broken.
In addition to figuring out middle school, Carter has to adjust to the unwelcome presence of this new know-it-all adult in his life and navigate the butler's notions of decorum. And ultimately, when his burden of grief and anger from the past can no longer be ignored, Carter learns that a burden becomes lighter when it is shared.
My opinion: Gary D. Schmidt's books break my heart in the best possible way. The plot here is a simple one, without a lot of complication. A good portion of it's beauty is in that simplicity. A fair amount of the text is actually dedicated to the playing of cricket and the use of technical terms. But all of that build up pays off in the central metaphor: finding your way to growing up. If there would otherwise be any ambiguity for the reader that is cleared up with the repeated refrain "remember who you are" which we can of course understand to me "remember the kind of person you want to be." If the characters weren't so well presented that sort of obvious lesson would be a blunt instrument but the charm of the writing covers that.
As a bonus, fans of Schmidt's prior books will recognize many teachers and neighbors as previous central characters (an occurrence that never failed to make me smile).
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff
Delilah Dirk is a charming adventure series featuring a dashing female adventurer and her hapless, somewhat unwilling, sidekick. Surprisingly, there is no central plot to this particular volume. There's no big villain they're fighting against, no large aim. They aren't aiming for revenge or treasure or power. They're just adventuring, righting the occasional wrong. The interest is in the interplay between Delilah and the titular Lieutenant, the differences between their personalities. And it's an absolute delight. The characters change each other. Delilah softens a little. The Lieutenant has his eyes opened to excitement and novelty. The overall feel is surprisingly gentle (in spite of a large number of swordings). The illustrations are fantastic, all about action and dynamic lines and expressive faces.
