"Style's" (Washington Post) book of the week is Sharon Creech's Replay. The short article notes, "Of course, readers expect great stories from Walk Two Moons author Sharon Creech. This novel is a play within a play, with much of Leo's real-life drama presented as lines of dialogue."
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Nicolette Jones selects Anna Dale's Dawn Undercover as the Times' "Children's Book of the Week." No real hope this one will be published in the States, but I'm going to have to find it anyway, because it sounds like a charming take-off on the British mystery. "It is set in a knowingly nostalgic present: Dawn wears mushroom-coloured knee-socks with plimsolls, the village show holds a contest for odd-shaped vegetables, and the (female) vicar pedals around on an ancient bicycle 'with the air of someone who longed to be in the Famous Five.'" A vicar! A village! And the Famous Five. I longed to be in the Famous Five too.
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Speaking of the Famous Five, and I wasn't going to bring this up, I swear, but, well, it fits here. Apparently, Madonna, Children's Writer, admitted at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that she had never actually read J.K. Rowling's books but had seen all the movies. She also was asked if she aimed to be the next Blyton. "The American-born star looked blank and asked: 'Who is that? Is she good?'" How dare she live in the U.K., really? (Evict her, Michele!) In any case, the Guardian has provided her with a brief tutorial.
