I'm very worried about the New York Times

Recently "lifestyle" articles in the New York Times have been driving me crazy. I'd like to know whether or not I'm alone in my frustration. I know that my angst has nothing to do with children's literature, but it does have everything to do with children and their parents.

Here's the issue. All the "lifestyle" stories seem to be focused on wealthy, East Coast, urban life. I understand that the New York Times is located in New York City. But its readers are not, for the most part.

I'm always frustrated about the mom articles: should wealthy mother stay home with her children or send them to exclusive, competitive day care? But I understand that these articles have nothing to do with my life (a good life, to be sure, but not one with either option).

Two recent articles, however, have really upset me. They are:

• Mommy and Daddy's Little Life Coach. (Let's not even get into the title.) How rich people turn to their children to save them from mom jeans or from stupendous real estate mistakes. As they would say in my era...gag me with a spoon.
• For Girls, It's Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too. While on the one hand I felt badly for the girls under extreme pressure in this article, on the other hand I thought...let's be real here...you're not choosing between State School and the local Community College like the rest of the country.

Seriously, am I alone here? I'm close to abandoning the New York Times--a newspaper I've relied upon for at least 25 years.

April, Cruelty, et al.

Flurries on the 4th day of April should be banned. Just sayin'...

Review: Ivy and Bean

This review was written by Alice Herold

You can tell the author, Annie Barrows, and the illustrator, Sophie Blacknell, of Ivy and Bean have children because they successfully have captured the personalities of the two seven year old girls in Ivy and Bean.

Bean (Bernice, when people are mad at her) didn't want to become friends with the new girl, Ivy, who lived across the street. She would rather work on her one goal in life--annoying her big sister, Nancy.

But one day Bean discovers Ivy wants to become a witch as they decide to hatch a plan together (involving worms) to make Nancy dance and never stop. The trouble is Ivy thought of the spell but didn't say it aloud, so the plan was unsuccessful. The two girls, undeterred, think of a new plan involving grasshoppers. Read and enjoy the antics of two imaginative little girls in Ivy and Bean.

I spoke too soon

I have 4 more blogs I need to add. They are:

• Mitali Perkins' Sparrow Speaking! Listen Up! This new blog is Mitali's character's blog. And it's on the upcoming presidential elections and related madness. Excellent! (I live in one of those two-oh-so-important primary states, and you'd think the election is on now.)
• Emily has launched Deliciously Clean Reads. While I have nothing again non-clean reads, I understand that many parents do. This useful new site is an excellent resource for people looking for books with no swearing and sexual content.
• In the Other Reads department, I'm adding Adventures in Daily Living--on "children, books, techie oddments, pets, paraplegia, adoption, gardening and whatever else strikes my fancy"
• Haunts of a Children's Writer. Jim D. is an active member of Illinois SCBWI and a writer. He's also writing over at the Children's Book Wiki.

Good reading, folks!

'Cause everyone's doing it for Poetry Month

I'm terza rima, and I talk and smile. Where others lock their rhymes and thoughts away I let mine out, and chatter all the while. I'm rarely on my own - a wasted day Is any day that's spent without a friend, With nothing much to do or hear or say. I like to be with people, and depend On company for being entertained; Which seems a good solution, in the end. What Poetry Form Are You?

Via A Year of Reading

New Bookslut articles

Two new articles of interest in this month's Bookslut:

• Chris Zammarelli talks to the folks at AS IF!
• Our own Colleen Mondor (okay, I know she was theirs first, but still...) reviews YA fiction for boys. It's a fabulous review column--not to be missed.

Review: Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times

Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times is a rip-roaring historical adventure for the Middle Grade reader.

L. Brittney places her hero, Nathan Fox, squarely into the world of William Shakespeare and Othello. Performing as a child actor, Fox is handpicked by Queen Elizabeth's master spy, John Pearce, to train for a mission in Venice. He's whisked away to London for in-depth study in a series of chapters children will enjoy greatly. At Master Robey's school, Nathan learns to fight with swords and guns, studies cryptography and stealth techniques, and comes into contact with a variety of colorful spies and weapons experts. Then he's on his way to Venice and into the world of international intrigue and personal treachery. (Iago, anyone?)

While adult readers know Othello's story, the intrigue and history of Venice and London in the age of Queen Elizabeth will thrill young readers. Brittney is especially skilled at atmosphere--bringing the filthy streets and the glamorous fashions of Venice to life. Nathan is an eager participant in dangerous missions, his joy only dampened when his older sister Marie is tapped to serve on the Venice mission as well. Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times is the first in a series and Nathan is sure to have many exciting adventures in the future.

If we can speak of a book's charisma, Nathan Fox has what Harry Potter and Percy Jackson share: compelling characters, a definite sense of place, and non-stop action. Pair this one with a retelling of Othello in a fourth- to sixth-grade classroom and you'll have a group of excited readers.
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Michele Fry recently reviewed Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times for The Edge of the Forest.

Check out the Nathan Fox website!

Nathan Fox: Dangerous Times was shortlisted for the 2007 Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.

ETA: Nathan Fox is currently available in the U.K. and the U.K. edition is available through Amazon-Canada. The U.S. edition is being edited and should be out in Spring 2008.

New Paper Tigers

Hi All! I have a few reviews to post later, but at the moment I'm busy digging through e-mails that have piled up during my adventures on the road.

In the meantime, check out the new PaperTigers. This month they focus on environmental books, with reviews, interviews, feature articles and more. Check it out!

(PaperTigers is "a website for librarians, teachers, publishers, and all those interested in young readers' books from and about the Pacific Rim and South Asia.")

New (or new-to-me) Blogs

It's April and time for a new blog roundup. Here's who I'm adding to the blogrolls this month:

• Emmaco (There's always time for a good book).
• Lifelongreader
• Bri Meets Books
• Adam Selzer (He was a great sport about Brian Farrey's open letter in The Edge of the Forest, by the way!)
• Shelf Talker (The new PW blog)
• Biblio File
• PJ Hoover
• Oowey, Goowey, Marshmallows
• Last, but not at all least: Wild Rose Reader.

In the "umm..I thought this one was linked already category" this month is interactivereader. Ummm...seriously. I thought I'd liked up Jackie ages ago. Color me terribly embarrassed.

Off to do the work...

Weekend Reviews (II)

No April Fools jokes from me. I'm too easily fooled! The google mail paper e-mail joke? My first thought was, oh, one of my co-workers would really like that. I'm still not sure what's up at Rate Your Students. Is it an April Fools joke, or is it real?

In any case, I can guarantee you these reviews are real and ready for the reading.

Not a children's book, but from our world: Meg Rosoff reviews Dina Rabinovich's Take Off Your Party Dress: When Life's Too Busy for Breast Cancer. (Rabinovich has long reviewed children's books for the Guardian and other U.K. papers.)

Kathryn Hughes reviews Unheard Voices, edited by Malorie Blackman (Naughts and Crosses), for the Guardian. (Essays on child slavery.)

Douglas Florian's Comets, Stars, The Moon, and Mars is the Washington Post Book of the Week. (Also in the Washington Post, a list of the words used in The Cat in the Hat.)

Mary Harris Russell reviews six new books in the Chicago Tribune. They include

• Arctic Thaw: The People of the Whale in a Changing Climate, by Peter Lourie
• Harlem Summer, by Walter Dean Myers
• Houdini: The Handcuff King, by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi ("This book convinces us that its graphic-novel format is the best possible way to tell this one story about magician Harry Houdini")
• And What Comes After a Thousand? by Anette Bley ("A find for families seeking a non-sectarian treatment of death")
• Caring for Cheetahs: My African Adventure, by Rosanna Hansen
• Campy: The Story of Roy Campanella, by David A. Adler, illustrated by Gordon C. James