Award-Winning Reads | The Adventures of Beekle

Sometimes the best friends lie just beyond our imagination.

Did you have an imaginary friend when you were young? Many children do. The winner of the week references this common childhood experience; however, the imaginary friend in this story does the unimaginable! 

In The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, follow Beekle as he ventures from a faraway island to the real world to finally meet his match - a special friend living in the city. It is a sweet tale about friendship and imagination. 

My friend and coworker Candace described it as a sort of reverse telling of another award winner, the 1964 Caldecott medalist, Where the Wild Things Are. Do you notice the crown and the white playsuit in both books?

The Adventures of Beekle is written and illustrated by Dan Santat. You might recognize his work from the Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot books. Santat won this year's prestigious Caldecott Medal! 

According to the American Library Association (ALA), the organization who designates these medals and honors, the Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. The medal is awarded annually to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children."

This is a logo for the Caldecott Medal. Claiming fair use, this photo is being used for informational purposes only, to illustrate what the award looks like.

Head to your local library and pick up this award-winning book that will surely delight readers of all ages!

Until next time, have a good reading!

Raquelle

Learning | Musketeers and Elites

This week, I've been reading a dystopian fantasy novel for teens. Marie Lu's The Young Elites takes place in a world where survivors of the Blood Plague are feared and ostracized. The king has an organization called The Inquisition, which aims to eliminate the malfettos, or survivors. 

These survivors are all marked in one way or another, with strange colorations of hair or skin. Adelina is one such survivor; she lost an eye to the plague, and her hair is now silver.  The story begins when Adelina is about to be executed for the murder of her abusive father; she quickly discovers that she is one of the rare malfettos with special powers--an elite. She finds herself joining The Daggers, a group of young elites who are using their powers to protect other malfettos from The Inquisition.

Cover image courtesy of LibraryThing.

You may remember that Marie Lu is the author of the Legend Series. The Young Elites is the first novel in a new series for teens.  It is recommended for ages 12 through 17.  

While I was reading The Young Elites, I was reminded of a classic series by Alexandre Dumas, The D'Artagnan Romances, including The Three Musketeers. 

Cover image courtesy of LibraryThing.

The iconic Musketeers have been featured in countless adaptations on the big and small screen.  D'Artagnan and his fellow Musketeers fight with swords, not superpowers, but I think people who like Alexandre Dumas' stories would like Lu's book. 

Learning | Nuts to You

Let me be clear about this; I am not trying to insult you, or anybody else.  I'm excited, because I just read an entertaining story about squirrels, and I would like to tell you about it. The name of the book is Nuts to You.

Nuts to You is by Lynne Rae Perkins. You may have read her Newbery Medal-winning book, Criss Cross. The main characters in this book are four squirrels. Not just any four squirrels--squirrels who are brave, loyal to their friends, philosophers and problem solvers.

Squiggy the Squirrel (the star of Explore)
from Kenny P's photostream on Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

The story begins with what appears to be the end for Jed, a grey squirrel who is snatched up by a hawk. But he finds a clever way to distract that predatory bird, so that he can escape. 









The new problem is, he does not know where he has landed. Everything is unfamiliar. Even the squirrels look different; they are red, instead of grey. They talk funny, and they just do things differently than Jed and his friends.

Red squirrel,
from Drew McLellan's photostream on Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

For instance, red squirrels eat pine cones--something Jed had never seen, because he lived in an area with different trees. 

Squirrel on a Mission, 
from Doug Brown's photostream on Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

Jed's friend, TsTs, sees the hawk snatch him, and drop him in a far off place. She enlists another friend, Chai, to accompany her on the dangerous mission to go find Jed and bring him home.












So we have an interesting story here, but it's made even better by the way it is told.  

The main narrative is enhanced by the author's own illustrations; some of these are like comic book panels, with dialogue and commentary.

She also adds notes. These notes tell us additional things about the story, or random facts.  There's plenty of opportunity to learn here, even though this book is fiction. 

For example, when she says Jed "slipped like water* through the distracted hawk's talons," The asterisk on water indicates a note that says,"Thick water. Or perhaps like a non-Newtonian fluid. Look it up on YouTube."

Perkins has a knack for lyrical description, as you can see in the quote below.

Best Squirrel House at the University of Michigan (April 4, 2014)
from Corey Seeman's photostream at Flickr.com.
Some rights reserved.

"Chai watched the object enter a solid bough the way a duck's foot enters water. But while water heals back up and is the same as before, the bough fell heavily to the ground. Thunk."--Nuts to You, p. 115. 









Nuts to You is written for middle graders, roughly from ages 8 to 12.  I also recommend it to anybody who enjoyed Kate DiCamillo's Newbery Medal-winning book, Flora and Ulysses.

Books On Film | Jurassic Park

Welcome back Dinos!

Universal Pictures has just re-released Jurassic Park (originally released 1993) as an IMAX 3-D movie. It's a PG-13 scifi action film about a group of people stuck on an island where dinosaurs, who have been cloned from fossilized DNA, get loose. 

The movie was wildly successful when it was first released. Since then there has been several sequels and it's become an amusement park ride at at Universal Hollywood theme park.

It's based on Michael Crichton's book Jurassic Park. The movie closely follows a lot of the plot from the book, although much more happens in the book than the movie. The book is also much creepier than the movie. While the movie can be enjoyed by audiences of most ages, the book is definitely meant to be read by teens and adults.

As a child, I really enjoyed this movie. They spend a good amount of time just showing off the dinosaurs before all of the action starts happening and there are children characters in the film. If you or your older child have never seen it, do so! If you enjoy suspense novels, then definitely pick up the book and it's sequel, The Lost World, pronto.

Covers Courtey of LibraryThing

The Wanderlust Librarian | Adventure Time!

The new year always brings out the possibility of getting some new adventures planned. Some trips are annual ventures (San Diego Comic-Con) while others will require extensive planning and saving up some funds.

All I can do is plan well enough to make these things happen.

Usually around this time of year, I'm torn between buying a physical thing (a new television) or getting some plane tickets. This year is no different. I've always been the kind of person that is all about the experience. I love the concept of living life in a positive and thoughtful way. I sometimes think that a television will help me to enjoy my home time....but then again, wouldn't traveling somewhere be a better use of my hard earned dollars?

*sigh* the agony of choosing. It's driving me batty!

I apologize in advance for the short post, but there is an epic blog post in the works for my next trip!!

Adventure is out there!!