Weekend Reviews on a Monday

First, the apologies:

1. I've been a bad, bad blogger. But I'm turning a new leaf now that The Cybils review copies have been ordered.
   
2. Poetry Friday roundup will be up tomorrow. Many great entries, including some first timers this week.
3. Against all my better judgment, I'm joining Jennie of Biblio File (Smalltown alum!) for NaNoWriMo. Yes, I should be working on editing other things, but I have a new story to tell. Adult, or at least teen, this time.

Okay, apologies over, short and sweet. Let's just get to this weekend's reviews:

The Publishers Weekly reviews are up. David Macaulay's latest The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body gets a big red star.

And speaking of Macaulay...Andrew Dansby interviews him for the Houston Chronicle.

And speaking of interviews, don't miss Nicolette Jones's with David Almond for the Telegraph. (Selected quote from Almond: "Sometimes I think the reason I write for children is to tell myself, with hindsight, that everything, however horrible it is, will work out OK in the end.")

And speaking of David Almond...his new novel, Jackdaw Summer, gets a rave review from Geraldine Brennan in the Guardian. (Brennan also reviews a few other new books in this column.)

Also in this week's Guardian:

• Lisa O'Kelly reviews Middle Grade fiction.
• Kate Kellaway reviews new picture books.
• Alyssa McDonald appreciates E.M.Gombrich's A Little History of the World.

Amanda Craig "recommends magical and macabre children's books for Hallowe'en" in the Times. 'Nuff said.

The Times Children's Book of the Week is The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams, ilustrated by Quentin Blake, reviewed by Nicolette Jones. (Quentin Blake!)

The AP brings you cooking books for kids. (Link via the Maryland Daily Record.)

Three children's book articles in this weeks San Francisco Chronicle:

• Halloween books, reviewed by Regan McMahon.
• Regan McMahon also reviews fall books with kids, cats and other creatures.
• And Susan Faust reviews books "that take on war."

Feature Alert: Libby Purves writes in the Times that "children need to be sprinkled with fairy dust" in reaction to the news that Richard Dawkins is writing a children's book. (Selected quote: "The reason I am delighted at Professor Dawkins' investigation, therefore, is that I am pretty sure his intelligence will bring him to the same conclusion as the psychologists: that a bit of magic and fantasy in childhood is useful and helps you to grapple with your fears about life, death, peril and chance.")

Dan Smith talks to Neil Gaiman about The Graveyard Book for the Toronto Star.

Susan Perren reviews six new books for the Globe & Mail.

Mary Harris Russell reviews Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, and Octavian Nothing: The Kingdom on the Waves, for the Chicago Tribune. ("Brilliant historical fiction.")

Janet Christie reviews children's books for the Scotsman. Also in the Scotsman, an interview with Anthony Horowitz.

Good week!