Éirinn go Brách: Books for St. Patrick's Day

Éirinn go Brách!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!Being of Irish descent, I will be wearin' o' my green today and readin' o' these books:


Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland
by Tomie dePaola
Tomie dePaola retells many of the stories of saints. His illustrations are beautiful and this one is of particular note as it's the story of St. Patrick as he is kidnapped and taken to Ireland. While there he receives visions and begins to convert the Irish peoples to Christianity.

There weren't any snakes I've been told, but Tomie recreates that story, among others of Patrick's life.
Including where Patrick teaches about the Trinity using a shamrock

Fiona's Luck

by Teresa Bateman

Fiona is a sassy, smarty young Irish lass. She uses all her wit and wisdom and outsmarts a band of leprechauns, including their king. A fun retelling of  an Irish folktale.

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato

by Tomie dePaola

Tomie comes in again with another retelling of an Irish folktale. Jamie O'Rourke is lazy, so lazy in fact that he is the laziest man in all of Ireland. When his wife is injured and no longer can do any work, it falls upon Jamie. When he runs across a leprechaun and is able to make a wish he wishes for the biggest potato ever. He thinks his problems with work will all be solved. But alas.... 

Tomie did another retelling of Jamie O'Rourke, as well as one of Fin M'Coul. Fin is the giant credited with creating the Giants Causeway in Ireland:

 

Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk

by Gerald McDermott

Tim O'Toole is very poor but when he encounters a band of leprechauns and steals their golden goose, he thinks all of his problems will be solved. Is Tim really smart enough to trick the leprechauns? Probably not and a fun retelling of another folktale ensues.

Tales from Old Ireland

by Malachy Doyle

This is a beautifully illustrated collection of seven Irish folktales. Wonderfully written, and fun to read aloud. 

The Wishing of Biddy Malone

by Joy Cowley

Biddy stumbles across a fairy village and is given three wishes but soon learns that not everything easily attained is good and sometimes everything you really need is found within yourself.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Something Old and Something New in Adventurous Reads!

I decided that I like the quick something old and something new theme. So I'm pulling it out and doing it again.

Something Old
This book is old, and I've owned a copy since it came out but only just read it.

The Thief Lord
by Cornelia Funke

This book? Wow, amazing! It has everything you could want! Adventurous scenes, harrowing chases and escapes, spying, mystery, magic, thievery, love, humor all set amidst the gorgeous background of Venice, Italy.

Bo and Prosper are two children hiding in Venice from their aunt, and the detective she has hired to find them. They are taken in by a group of orphaned children that work for "The Thief Lord".
That's just the beginning...
This is a wondrous story. This would be a great book for a family read-aloud. I'd suggest tucking into the book with a plate of pasta to help set the stage!

The story was a huge hit in Germany and was eventually translated to English and made it way to England and then America.

Definitely read this or revisit it if you have already read it.

Something New

The Explorer
by Katherine Rundell
This book has racked up all sorts of awards in England. I'd like to see it get a bit more exposure here in the U.S.

Four children are headed home for school break when their plane crashes in the Amazon jungle and the pilot dies.

The children struggle to survive on their own in the jungle. One of them stumbles upon clues that lead them to a hidden, ancient city. There they meet "the Explorer".
I loved this book and hope you will too!

Happy Reading

Reading the Immigrant Experience

Two fabulous books that I have read this past year both deal with immigrating to the United States. One is historical and the other more contemporary.

90 Miles to Havana
by Enrique Flores-Galbis

90 Miles to Havana takes place during the early 1960's Operation Peter Pan (Operación Pedro Pan) when over 14,000 unaccompanied children were sent from Cuba to the United States. The story is heart breaking as we witness parents struggle with the decision to send their children away from them in the hopes of keeping them safe from the Cuban Revolution. The story is based on the author's own experience. This is an adventurous story, with edge-of-your seat action. A great view into a very catastrophic time in history.


The Only Road
by Alexandra Diaz

This is one of the best books I have read in the past year. It follows Jamie, and his cousin, who in order to avoid the choice of either joining up with gangs in their small Guatemalan community, or be killed is another heartbreaking story. This also is based on true events.

The harrowing journey is nothing compared to the heartbreak of the family who knows that they only hope for their children is to send them off to escape in hopes of a better life.

Happy Reading!

Hello World!

The Hello Atlas
by Ben Handicott, Kenard Pak (Illustrations)
The fun of this book is that you can connect to the free app to listen to the different languages represented in the book. The book includes simple greetings in over 100 languages.
This goes WAY past the common English, Spanish, French etc.
 It even includes on of my favorites, Samoan!

The book is divided by geographical region and then shows people from those areas going about their day, including general greetings.

The pictures are delightful and fun to look at it. This is a GREAT opportunity to discover the world!

Happy Reading!

Celebrating Women in March

Since March is Women's History Month I'd like to highlight a few great picture book biographies throughout the month. Here are a few to begin checking out:


Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement
by Carole Boston Weatherford
A poetic telling of the life of Fannie Lou Hamer and her journey towards civil rights. Most of the women that drove the movement have been overlooked throughout history, so this is a wonderful picture into a lesser known figure.


Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child
by Jessie Hartland
Simply Delightful! Written more in graphic novel form, but a fun picture book recounting Julia's life becoming the famous chef that she was.


Martina & Chrissie: The Greatest Rivalry in the History of Sports
by Phil Bildner
I love the illustrations in this one in particular. This chronicles the parallel lives of these two tennis greats and their fantastic rivalry on the court, and friendship off of it. A great snippet in time also with Martina being from the USSR.


Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O'Keeffe Painted What She Pleased
by Amy Novesky
There are multiple picture books on Georgia O'Keeffe however none are as beautifully illustrated as this one. The pictures are stunning and it is an interesting view into a time of her life.


Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees
by Frank Prevot
This is a good account of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. She, along with her organization, planted over 30-million trees in Africa to assist in sustainability and as a form of nonviolent protest.

Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber
by Sue Macy
I had no idea who Mary Garber was, however she was the first female sports writer in America. She began her career in the 1950's when NO woman was writing about sports, or ever given a voice to discuss a man's world.


Me...Jane
by Patrick McDonnell
I cannot explain how much I love this book. It is a very simple story of a young Jane Goodall. Most of the information on her future career and life with chimpanzees comes in a page at the end of the book. But the pictures are delightful of young Jane and her stuffed chimpanzee, definitely one to look for!

Happy Reading!

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue

I won't even waste time commenting on my lack of consistent book reviewing. I've read literally hundreds of books since the last time I've blogged, but mostly record them on my Goodreads account.

So often I am asked for book recommendations, and I still love giving out suggestions.
I'm hoping to at least throw quick posts up with ideas and not make them be such looooonnng extravagant posts as before.

Here's my latest and since I still love a "theme" I'm going with the old wedding mantra of "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue" with some of my top rated books I've read in the past year.

Something Old


A String in the Harp
by Nancy Bond

Look at that one, not a great cover right?
There are other covers and they are all MUCH worse. So here we go with the whole "don't judge a book thing"...

This is a mix of fantasy and everyday. Peter, a boy in Wales, finds an old harp key and soon it is transporting him back and forth into the world of Taliesin (who is according to Wikipedia an early Brythonic era Welsh poet who wrote the Book of Taliesin.) So basically an ancient Welsh bard.
I loved this book as it transported me to Wales and left me with the desire to go exploring the ancient fells of Wales.

But it's also fantastical, and mysterious and filled with adventure. 


Something New


The Lie Tree
by Frances Hardinge

The more of Frances Hardinge's books that I read, the more that I love them. Her writing style is beautiful and clever. It's also another mystery with some good fantasy thrown in.
We follow Faith, a young 14 year-old daughter of a famous Natural Scientist who has taken his family to hide away on a small island to run from the scandal of being recently labeled a fraud.

There are wonderfully written nuanced scenes of Faith observing childhood and adulthood and the roles in which woman are relegated in her time period. It's also a fun romp of a mystery and sometimes a little spooky!

Something Borrowed


When the Moon Comes
by Paul Harbridge

Sometimes I "borrow" a book from the library. If I love it, I end up buying it.  This one I loved and is now on my list to buy...

This books doesn't say it's a lovely Minnesota winter night, but it could be.
It's a lovely picture book of children playing hockey on the flooded beaver pond under a full moon.
It's simply beautiful. I can picture my little nieces and nephews as the characters of this story.

It is also a book that I would label as "quiet". It's a must read!

Something BLUE


The Someday Birds
by Sally J. Pla

I loved this book. I'm still unsure why this didn't win any awards except that many awards are biased and overlook smaller, lesser read books like this.

This follows Charlie, a boy who is on the autism spectrum (not labeled that way, but obvious to me) as he is forced to travel cross country with his siblings to go be with their injured father (a news correspondent).  Charlie doesn't just change his routine easily so there's some funny moments. There are also some really sweet and heartwarming moments.

Charlie is obsessed with birds, and has a list of birds to "observe" with his father. He decides that the road trip is the perfect time to look for each of them. I loved it.


So there are four recommends.
I'm contemplating beginning my own annual BBA's. (Becky Book Awards).
I love me a shiny label on a book but so often of late find the "winners" disappointing so I may start my own...
Hope to blog again soon.
Happy Reading!