Themes

Ruth White's latest book, You'll Like It Here  (Everybody Does) is the third book - whoops!  make that the fourth book about aliens trying to cohabit with humans peacefully that I've read in the past year.     And in each one, it is the humans who are the aggressors.  So against conventional wisdom!

White starts the book off with a classroom invasion by a madman Soon after, the perfectly normal family of one of the students moves across country where they seem to settle in happily.  Then, things start to change.  The girl has an attack of gibberish.  Her older brother's professorial speaking style raises eyebrows.  Suddenly the family is under attack and they take flight in a see-through glider/space vehicle.  They arrive in Fashion City where they are assured, over and over again, "You'll like it here.  Everybody does."

White's pacing makes all the difference in this story.  She lets the reader realize that the family is "different"; that Fashion City is not what it seems; that the family may be trapped.  By feeding the reader details the way a pre-teen might notice them, White ups the suspense level. 

This is a gentler book than Pittacus Lore's story of interplanetary genocide.  White works hard to establish rapport between the reader and the characters.  But the best part of this book is that there is a possibility that the Blue family might return as they find their way through their strange new world.

Storyteller Thursday - one day late

Last night, I went to Touchstone Theatre's Christmas City Follies XII.  This has become a Christmas tradition for my Mom, my sister, Christine, and I.  Every year, we invite a different friend to join us and this year it was my co-worker and partner in crime (past), Suzanne. 

The Follies are a Lehigh Valley tradition, a vaudevillian collection of comedy sketches, musical pieces and local lore lampooned.  Every year, we wonder how they will top last year's production and every year the ensemble cast produces something wonderful.  This is not a greeting card Christmas at all, but it feels oh-so-merry-and-bright.

And, what does this have to do with storytelling?  Well, Mary Wright is one of The Follies cast members and she is also a super storyteller!

Mary is a tireless proponent of education through the arts, working with theater groups at area high schools, running storytelling and creative dramatic workshops and retreats.  Besides all that, she is an all around nice person!  She tells stories based on her own life, and the lives of her fore-mothers.  She has developed story/theater pieces for arts organizations.  She and Cora Hook, another local theater and storytelling star wrote produces and starred in Two Cronies, a marvelous show on the women's coming of age through "the change".

Back to The Follies - the show runs Thursday through Sunday until December 18th.  Get your tickets now!

KidsBook Website Tuesday

Yesterday, I stumbled across Figment, a young writers' and readers' community and website.  The audience is teens and above and the books featured are mostly YA fiction.  Young authors can read each others works.  There are throwdowns in which literary characters are pitted against each other and submitted to a vote.  Right now, a Gritty Girl contest is waging, with Hermione Granger besting Katniss Evedeen but in a stalemate against Buffy.

Best-selling YA books can be purchased through this site.  Sometimes there are author interviews.  Plenty of forums are offered for people who want to interact with other members of the Figment community.  The site even has a forum dedicated to GRAMMAR.  (Wow!)

I joined, for what that's worth.  I'm a lurker right now.

APL Tri-District Meeting

I am done with my list.  Sure, I'll think of other books to add between now and tomorrow but for NOW, I am done.  If you want to read my list of Best Books for Children and Teens for 2011, just click. 

Now, I need to deliver the books to Allentown Public Library so I am not dragging boxes and boxes of galleys there tomorrow morning.

From the Guardian

The Guardian - The British newspaper, not the defunct TV series - has offered us all a joyful online Advent Calendar centered on books for children and teens.  These are British books, mind, but a whole lot of those have captured the American readers' attention - Harry Potter, for instance.

The selection for Dec. 2 is a slide show about Raymond Briggs.

Click here and then bookmark the page so you can check back every day for quizzes and author interviews and other fun for us older fans of kids' lit.

Storyteller Thursday/Friday

Apology:  Last night Blogger was, um, not cooperative, so this post is late.

Today's storyteller of note is Chaz Kiernan.  Chaz is, among other things, the Coordinator of the Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild, a Mark Twain impersonator, a Grimm's fairy tale enthusiast and blogger, the Pennsylvania representative for the National Youth Storytelling Showcase and a superb storyteller.  GO, CHAZ!!!  And his Lost Dollar stories are pretty darn neat, too.

ALSO,  Chaz writes a blog where he dissects a fairy tale - usually from the Brothers Grimm - every month.   Mind-tickling insights partnered with cultural background make these blog posts fascinating to read. 

The Lehigh Valley is lucky to have Chaz right here among us!

Paper Sculptor Strikes again

The Paper Sculptor of Edinburgh has delivered her final 3 sculptures - along with an anonymous letter of explanation and a heart felt thank you.

Here is a detail of one of her works. A small man with a weapon stands ready to defend himself from a dinosaur (not shown).  To see all ten sculptures and read about where they were found, click here.