Kites and Kangaroos

Since Monday was both Chinese New Year and Australia Day, here is a survey of children’s books about kites (a Chinese invention) and kangaroos…

Kites
Asian Kites by Wayne Hosking
An informative introduction covers everything from materials (Mulberry paper and #10 crochet thread are musts) to wind scale (light air or fresh wind). The subsequent chapters illustrate how to make kites from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, and Japan. Each project details recommended ages, what you’ll need, and what to do to make the kite. Most are for ages 9-12 and a few are for 7-12 (so much for our preschooler’s January craft project). I’ll file this one away for a future family project.

Riley Flies a Kite by Susan Blackaby and illustrated by Matthew Skeens
Riley’s red and yellow kite becomes a focal point for each page saturated in colorful graphics. The storyline about where he will fly his kite is suspenseful enough for a beginning reader but grinds to a disappointing halt.

Bear and Kite by Cliff Wright
A board book of opposites – loose/tight, play/fight – demonstrated by black and white bears. My favorite picture depicts the bears running with the kite, sheer delight on their faces.

Kangaroos
Mother May I? by Grace Maccarone and illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Joey has a new question for every page. Cute text but the illustrations have a “rough draft” quality that’s distracting.

I Love It When You Smile by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Charles Fuge
Trying to make her son smile, a kangaroo pulls all sorts of tricks out of her pouch. Done with realistic paintings, this is a fun story to read out loud to your grumpy Little Roo.

Everyone Can Be Great

Through collage and watercolor illustrations by Bryan Collier, Martin’s Big Words tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. Stained glass windows, church steeples, and the American flag illustrate Martin’s message that “everyone can be great.” We read of bus boycotts, marches, bomb threats, accolades, and finally the assassination. A concise history of the great man’s life and work that will have you flipping back through the pages even after your listener has drifted off to sleep.

Martin’s Big Words Words by Doreen Rappaport and Pictures by Bryan Collier

Voting Ends January 20

Click here to vote for the best book you read last year.

Are you an addict?

Have you ever decided to stop, but only lasted a couple of days?
After Confessions of a Shopaholic, I swore that would be the last one. But then my sister had the one where she ties the knot. Then I realized I skipped the one where she takes Manhattan. After that, I found out she had a sister, so I had to read just one more.

Has your reading caused trouble at home?
One afternoon I was reading and eating chocolate chips with my baby sleeping next to me. Two chapters of The Undomestic Goddess later, I looked down and saw a pool of dark matter oozing out of E’s neck. My husband (a doctor) thought his intestine had ruptured. Upon closer inspection, we realized he had a pulse and a melted chocolate chip on him.

Have you had to start reading upon awakening during the past year?
Does 3:30 a.m. count?

Do you tell yourself you can stop any time you want to?
I told myself that after every chapter of Can You Keep a Secret? and found myself reading the last page at 3:45 a.m. (see above).

Do you have "blackouts"?
I can’t really recall Remember me?.

Have you ever felt that your life would be better if you did not read?
I could do without the headaches and fatigue after a 5 hour binge, the anxiety caused by the character’s mounting debt, and the paranoia that my colleagues will find out.

Hi, my name is Morningstar and I’m a Kinsellaholic.

I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass

Kiwi sorbet. Fox hunting. Open-heart surgery on a bear. Only Julia Glass is skillful enough to blend these disparate elements into the same novel.

As in Three Junes and The Whole World Over, Glass relies on strong characters and the passage of time to propel the plot forward. In I See You Everywhere, Glass alternates the narrative voice between sisters Clem and Louisa. We are given updates on their careers (in science and art), lovers (fishermen and stuntmen), and health (wilderness injuries and cancer) over lapses of three years at first and then of three months as the novel comes to a close.

Despite the soap operatic elements of plot – amnesia from a yachting accident, unwanted pregnancies – the emotional elements remain believable. Parental grief is fueled by rage. Marital dissatisfaction is born from indifference. Sisterly love is expressed in inappropriate stabs at humor.

Sure Louisa may make kiwi sorbet, but she also eats brownies not quite done in the middle. The bear may end up on the operating table, but you’ll keep reading to ensure Clem doesn’t sleep with the surgeon.

Year in Review

I only keep a journal when I’m traveling, living outside of Texas, or chronicling my kids. But a few years ago on a dismal New Year's Eve, I decided to write my own year-in-review entry covering books, movies, music, and notable events of the year in one fell swoop. The next year I dispensed with everything but the books. After that, I started maintaining my book list throughout the year rather than try to remember author names and titles after 12 months of reading. Although I don’t write down every book I read, as some are best forgotten (see Cheer!: Three Teams on a Quest for College Cheerleading's Ultimate Prize), I do note my favorites.

Here's my list of fiction and nonfiction notables (in the order read) for 2008. Click on the title to read a summary.

Fiction
The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller
Zoo Station by David Downing
The Guy Not Taken: Stories by Jennifer Weiner
A Peculiar Grace and Lost Nation by Jeffrey Lent
Consequences by Penelope Lively
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
Belong to Me: A Novel by Marisa De Los Santos
The Commoner: A Novel by John Burnham Schwartz
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
I'll Never Be Long Gone by Thomas Greene
The Cure for Modern Life by Lisa Tucker
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
The Deportees: and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle
The Sound of Language by Amulya Malladi
The Brambles and The Tiny One by Eliza Minot
This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes
Karma and Other Stories by Rishi Reddi
Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 by Annie Proulx

Nonfiction
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
Paris to the Moon and Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik
Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
Sheetrock & Shellac by David Owen
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson
I Was Told There'd Be Cake - Essays by Sloane Crosley

Oh my, it’s fruitcake weather

With her Texas twang, my aunt does a perfect rendition of that line from Truman Capote's “A Christmas Memory”. After first watching the movie version at her house, several years later I encountered the audio version on a long car ride to Arkansas. It wasn’t until I bought a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s at a church book sale that I read the print version. It’s always with a sense of delight tempered with melancholy that I turn to the story, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to follow Buddy and his friend as they buy whiskey from Mr. Ha Ha Jones, send fruitcakes to the White House, and craft homemade kites for Christmas morning.

Every year different details in the story stand out. The year my mom made homemade fruitcake, I could taste the citron as I read their recipe. Last year, when my daughter was infatuated with dolls, I could picture exactly the wicker buggy with wobbly wheels they use to haul pecans. This year, I noticed the prices of things in the Depression era story – two dollars for a quart of whiskey, fifty cents for a Christmas tree, a dime for a picture show.

This story sates that yen you had for something rich and sweet and Christmasy, and like fruitcake, endures December after December. So after you've set up the Advent wreath, made the gingerbread cookies, and assembled some 15-odd nativity sets, it’s time to curl up with a hot mug of cider and “A Christmas Memory”.