Home » Posts tagged "children’s books" (Page 11)

Book Review: Between Worlds by Skip Brittenham

Between Worlds by Skip Brittenham
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0399176890
Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition, Audible edition

 

Between Worlds is a YA mash-up of the science fiction, fantasy, and romance genres that markets itself as providing an immersive augmented reality experience. Augmented reality, if you haven’t experienced it, adds new aspects to your existing reality and allows you to manipulate them in a 3D environment. In the case of Between Worlds, you can download an app that uses the camera of a smartphone or tablet to create the illusion that the people and creatures in the book’s color illustrations are three-dimensional and can move around on the page in limited ways, depending on where you move your camera screen.  This is a pretty neat trick that you would expect to engage teens, and when I tried it out with my son, he got very excited about the concept. However, there were a limited number of color illustrations, and the app didn’t work with all of them, so he quickly got frustrated and abandoned the book.

It’s neat to see publishers trying new things and taking risks to create a more immersive and attractive reading experience, and the idea is an interesting one, but it still needs work. I don’t think it would necessarily work on a large scale, since most people don’t want to download an app for every book they read, and having to stop reading to activate the illustrations actually doesn’t create an immersive reading experience– it breaks it down. Based on my son’s reaction, the AR aspect of the book was enough to catch his attention, but not enough to convince him to read it. This might work better with nonfiction: a few years ago we reviewed a nonfiction book called Horrible Hauntings that used this technology very effectively to simulate ghosts moving around in the illustrations on the pages for each entry.

The story itself was okay, but it didn’t impress me. Although it had some interesting ideas, they weren’t fully explored, and the primary characters, Mayberry and Marshall, were flat and unsympathetic. Mayberry was the brainy new girl whose urban “coolness” and obnoxious attitude left her on the fringe in her rural high school. Marshall was the geeky prankster from a well-known and formerly wealthy family that had fallen on hard times, and who has a secret crush on her. The two bond over their outsider status and love of science. When Marshall learns that Mayberry’s mother, a biologist, is studying a local colony of quaking aspen trees, he suggests to Mayberry that they break in to the restricted forest to seek out the mythical Wishing Tree that is supposedly at the center of the grove. Mild teen rebellion, science fiction, fantasy, and a touch of wish-fulfillment romance ensue. Despite packing all that in (and an alternate reality with the potential to be very interesting), the characters and story just aren’t enough on their own, and with the AR breaking the flow of the reading experience instead of enhancing it, the book is only temporarily enticing.

I think it’s great to see a major publisher trying new things to enhance the reading experience, and I hope we’ll continue to see experimentation. However, the story on its own was not enough to carry this reader, and I don’t think this particular experiment was a success. I look forward to seeing what comes next!

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski


Posted on October 26, 2016 by , Reply

Halloween “Chapter Books” for Children and Tweens

In setting out to put together some lists of suggested Halloween chapter books, I discovered I’d already done it. These are a few years old, but classics remain classics. Check these out if you’re looking for Halloween reading for your school-aged independent reader. And if you have suggestions for an update, let me know!

“It Happened At Halloween”” is a list of chapter books with pivotal scenes that take place at Halloween. When I wrote it, I recommended these for ages 10-14, but at this point I’ve read The Egypt Game with my daughter, who is 9, and I think the age range for these books is more like ages 9-12. Your mileage may vary.

“Halloween Scares for Beginning Series Readers” lists mildly scary series books written for independent readers in the early grades and individual titles in a children’s book series that take place at Halloween.

“Halloween Book List for Kids”: This list is sort of a mess, because our “kids” section is for ages 0-12, and obviously there is a huge difference between what a baby and a 12 year old want (at least as far as reading material is concerned). There are lots of titles listed, and these include picture books, chapter books, and nonfiction. Some have been reviewed and some haven’t been. There are plenty of Halloween-related titles here, but there are also books that aren’t specifically Halloween themed that might be fun to read at this time of year. This is actually a different list than our “Scary Books for Kids” page, although some titles can be found in both places.

And a little encouragement here to read with your kid (or any kid) this month, from Spook House Dave and Monster Librarian.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Posted on October 16, 2016 by , Reply

Book Review: Gershon’s Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year, retold by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Jon J. Muth

Gershon’s Monster: A Story for the Jewish New Year,  retold by Eric A. Kimmel and illustrated by Jon J. Muth.

Scholastic, 2000

ISBN-13: 978-0439108393

Available: Hardcover, paperback

Gershon’s Monster is based on a story from the Hasidic tradition of Judaism, retold by Eric Kimmel, also the author of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. Gershon is a man who never regrets or apologizes for his mistakes. Every week he sweeps them into his basement where he won’t have to see them, and once a year, on Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year, he gathers them into a sack, carries them down to the ocean, and empties them in.

Gershon and his wife desperately want a child, and Gershon visits a great rabbi for advice. The rabbi’s prayers are successful, but he warns Gershon that his selfishness will eventually cost the lives of his children, as the sea will claim them as payment for washing away his errors.  Gershon ignores the rabbi’s warning, but one day as his children are playing near the water, a monster rises from the sea, created from years and years of Gershon’s misdeeds. To save his children, Gershon must act selflessly, and acknowledge and repent his errors.

What could have been a simple, well-done retelling of a Hasidic folktale on the wisdom of making amends (the author’s note says he is a stand-in for the mystic Ba’al Shem Tov, a great rabbi who lived in the 1700s). takes on extraordinary power with the illustrations of Jon J. Muth. While the art for most of the story is light and delicate, darker browns and golds illuminate Gershon’s visit with the prophetic rabbi,  with grays and blacks dominating the scenes where Gershon’s selfishness is most obvious. The page where Gershon leaves the rabbi is framed in gray, with the sad expression of the rabbi in the foreground, but a bright green visible from the doorway, as Gershon  once again blithely leaves without dealing with the selfish behavior in his wake. The darkest illustrations are the most dramatic, though. Gershon’s individual mistakes are small, dark shapes that look almost gleeful as they ride alongside him or on top of his sack, set apart from the muted and blurred images by their sharp edges.  The monster created by Gershon’s years of errors that he has deposited into the sea is indistinct, blending in with the dark clouds and threatening waves while simultaneously emerging as a gigantic black horror, and turning to that page, even though I knew something terrible would happen, left me momentarily breathless. It really was a “wow” moment.  While illustrations such as this could be considered too dark and disturbing for some younger children, most children, Jewish or not, will enjoy the story, and it’s a great jumping off point for a discussion of the importance of making amends, and on the ability to change for the better. With Rosh Hashonah just around the corner, I recommend following it up with a snack of apples and honey.

Gershon’s Monster is a winner of the Sydney Taylor Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Highly recommended, especially for libraries in communities with a strong Jewish population.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 


Posted on October 1, 2016 by , Reply
First « 910111213 » Last