The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (May 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440421241
• ISBN-13: 978-0440421245
• List Price: $6.99
• I finished this book on Feb. 22

Okay, so: good covers, increasingly less cool stories. Seriously: you read this whole book before you even know how it fits into the series.
This is the story of what happens before the "end" of the world that results in the creation of Ember. Nickie and her aunt come to Yonwood to clean out and sell an old family estate. Nickie has three goals: 1. Keep Greenhaven (the estate) 2. Fall in love (p.s. she's like 11) 3. Help the world (oh yeah, the world is in on the brink of war - and the 11 year old can fix it).
So, here's why this book annoyed me. Lots of stuff was unrealistic. First off: what kind of aunt is in the care of their niece and lets her get into major trouble and is so inattentive she doesn't even know the girl is hiding a dog. In their house. Also: religious crazies. They make me furious in real life and even more angry when people actually listen to them in books. That's what's going on in Yonwood. Everyone has taken a dose of the god crazies. Seriously, the whole town. Mike Huckabee would be jealous (he kind of looks like a walleye pug pup, no?).
Anyway, major shenanigans ensue and then everything is cleared up in a few pages at the end. It's like super speed round denouement. Seriously, I felt my hair ruffle as the end came speeding at me out of nowhere.
So, out of this series my favorite is the first, and though these are great for younger kiddos I think I'm over them.

The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375828257
• ISBN-13: 978-0375828256
• List Price: $5.99
• I finished this book on Feb. 20

This is the sequel to The City of Ember, and it follows the story of the people of Ember after they escape the underground city into the real world. On the plus side: they have escaped from a dying city which was running out of electricity and supplies. The bummer: it's a post apocalyptic world and it kind of sucks to never have been outside in the sun and heat before.
So, our pilgrims find themselves in the city of Sparks, one of the only fledgling cities of survivors that is finally starting to prosper. The town decides that they have to take in the residents of Ember, which about doubles their population. This, of course, puts a huge strain on the resources and tolerance of the people of Sparks. Eventually, tensions rise, until there is a confrontation between the two peoples.
What is cool about this story is how well DuPrau tells both sides of the story. You can really feel for both the citizens of Sparks and the Emberites. Also, there are jerky people on both sides of the fight and cool people. Eventually things are wrapped up with a neat bow, as you'd expect. This is a very middle school moral of the story kind of book. Predictable for me, but perfect for young readers.
Here's my thing, though: I know why they didn't want the people in Ember to know about the outside world. But...why keep it a secret from the world once it's over and done with? The people of Sparks don't even believe them...ever. Very annoying and implausible, I feel. There is one lame nursery rhyme meant to remind people, but even that is misinterpreted. I feel I would have left some info, maybe a general game plan for re-entry. Just sayin...

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375822747
• ISBN-13: 978-0375822742
• List Price: $5.99
• I finished this book on Feb. 8th

This is the first book in a series for middle schoolers. I bought it at a mega sale over the summer and it's been sitting around chatting with other books in the "To Be Read" pile for a while now. I decided it was time to dust it off (literally) and give it a go.
The book is based in the post-apocalyptic underground City of Ember. It seems that the city was built and set up with stores of food and electricity and the people of the city forgot over time what the real world is like. They are left with one set of instructions to get out after what would presumably be a good amount of time for the world to become safe again (250 years).
We meet our heroine, 12-year-old Lina Mayfleet on "Assignment Day" at school. This is the day where they effectively graduate from formal education and are randomly assigned a job (which totally sucks). Lina wants to be a messenger and, of course, pulls the crappy job of pipeworker. Doone, a social upstart who wants to save the failing city pulls messenger and is annoyed. So, you guessed it, they pull the old switcheroo.
Next Lina finds a piece of paper which seems to detail something important, but has been munched on by her baby sister. It is, of course, the instructions for getting out of the city. The problem is, no one knows they are supposed to be looking for it. She and Doon set out to decipher the broken message and save the day.
The idea of the underground city is cool. They have greenhouses, but most of their supplies come from storehouses and of course, the canned good and lightbulbs are rapidly depleting. Which brings me to another point. It's hard for us to imagine a world that's entirely dark but that's how this place is. It is lit only by overhead lights and at night instead of dusk and sunset it just goes dark at lights out. Yikes. Also: the power is failing. And there are occasional blackouts. Can you imagine? During these blackouts the lights are off completely and everything is pitch dark. Here that's not the case, even when there is a blackout there are still stars, there's still the moon, but these people live in fear that the lights will go out forever and that will be it. For some reason, they haven't figured out candles. (Lame).
The story is interesting and creative and the characters are good. The reading level is low, so I'm sure it would be very easy for this to be read by the 9 year olds that Amazon suggests. This series is very popular in the elementary and middle schools that I've seen. Here's a few links to some lesson plans for the book: Random House reader's guide, or the Teacher's @ Random teaching guide.
Oh, and it's going to be a movie with Bill Murray. I just got my paws on the rest of the series so you can expect those reviews soon.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Audio CD
• Publisher: Listening Library (Audio); Unabridged edition (August 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307282279
• ISBN-13: 978-0307282279
• List Price: $50.00
• I finished listening to this audio book on Dec. 22

I always think it's funny when you listen to a book on tape read by a woman and they do the voices. Lynn Redgrave read this and she was amazing, her voices and accents were outstanding. However, many times, when women try to do men they sound like old men because the woman does the voice gruffly to distinguish it from her own. The reason I'm telling you this is because I imaged Mo to be much older than Brendan Frasier who will play him in the movie. You can see the trailer here.
Okay, so, Mo is a bookbinder and he has a secret: he can read things out of books. This is fucking awesome except he can't necessarily control the things he reads out. For example: 9 years ago Mo was reading his wife a story and he accidentally read out two really bad guys, one sort of good guy and read his wife into the story. Balls. I hate it when that happens. Anyway, this is all news to Meggie, his daughter, until the sort of good guy, Dustfinger, shows up and starts a kerfuffle. Turns out, the big bad, Capricorn, has an even bigger bad he wants Mo to read out (not to mention treasure and wenches) of his story while Dustfinger desperately wants to be read back in.
Then, the good guys do lots of stupid things, like get themselves caught, get themselves put into nets and get all their books burned. Double balls. Eventually, they come up with some pretty lame plans to save the day. I don't mean to make fun, it's just this: if I were ever caught by the bad guy I would be very docile and agreeable. Seriously, I feel like things work better if you are not so obviously trying to escape. Maybe play along. People in books never do that, especially pre-teen girls. Give me a break, I would be baking Capricorn and his creepy mother cookies and offering to do their laundry so as not to get myself kilt.
Oh! Dustfinger has a marten with horns. That's this kind of marten, and not Marten Broadcloak, in case you were wondering. P.S. I want to snuggle with a marten. Additionally: my new puppy's middle name is Marten. His first name is Viggo (as in the Carpatian)
So, one of the things I liked about this book was the complete reverence the characters had for books. It was funny to read this and the Thirteenth Tale at the same time because they were both bibliophile books.
I am excited about this movie, but I am worried that it will be cheesy and I can tell from the trailer that lots of made up extra stuff goes down. Either way, I have a crush on Paul Bettany and I hope to see lots of him breathing fire. I also have a crush on Helen Mirren, so that should be good too.
Anywho: this is part of a trilogy, and you can read more about it here. I shall be reading the second book at some point, that's a promise. In case you were wondering, if I could read things out of books I would read out Oy from the Dark Tower series. I would want to read out Edward from the Twilight Saga, or Roarke, from the ...In Death series, but the truth is: they wouldn't be into me so that would be a bummer. I like to think that Oy and I could have fun though. Oy! Un!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books (July 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545010225
• ISBN-13: 978-0545010221
• List Price: $34.99
• I finished this book on July 21
  

Well, my lovelies, it's finally here. I went to midnight madness at our local Borders and let me tell you, it was nuts. There were awesome costumes, my favorites were: a perfect Professor Sprout, a teenage Bellatrix Lestrange, and an amazing Luna Lovegood. There was also a tiny baby dressed up like a house elf: effin cute. Anywho: my boyfriend and I got our books and our complementary posters and ran home to read (guess who is a faster reader, and therefore way cooler? Oh, that's right, this girl). Let me tell you, my dears: we were not disappointed. Hence, the bee seal of approval.
Because you can find spoilers pretty much everwhere on the internet there will probably be a few light ones in here, so beware. However, if you're a diehard I'm sure you've finished by now (unless you're my dad, who will probably still be reading next week).
First off, several of my theories were right, because I am awesome. I liked to see Harry being a bit of a badass in this one. Who calls Voldemort "Tom Riddle"? Only badasses, that's who! Face! Anywho, Ron acts like a baby and then gets over it, and Hermione is a bit more emotional in this book than we've ever seen her which was very cool. Other acts of coolness were committed by: McGonagall, Momma Weasley and of course, Neville, the dark horse.
My favorite part of this book was that we got to see a lot more realistic, 3 dimensional portrayals of some of the characters. Was Dumbledore perfect? Nope, but he was still an amazing wizard and mentor to Harry. Oh, and my boyfriend Snape? Mmm, we are gonna make out (because, you know, he's real).
Overall I was very pleased with this book, though I will admit I'm awfully sad it's over. I will definitely have to reread this one, I'm thinking in the wintertime, when it will taste like comfort food. Anyway: just because it's over doesn't mean I can't yell spells all over the apartment. (the cats especially love this.) Bombarda!
Oooh! Oooh! I almost forgot, there was a bit of swearing in this one! Besides the normal ones like "bloody" (love the Brits) there were a few Bastards, several Arses and a few "effing" which had me cackling at my book. Oh, I love swearing and I love HP and when the two come together it's like a hug from Jesus. Anyway, if you were fighting the Dark Lord you'd be cursing too. I know I would be. And yelling spells. Expelliarmus!
Update: My boyfriend Stephen King has written an amazing review of this book here which you should read. Now. Go do it.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 652 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (July 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439785960
• ISBN-13: 978-0439785969
• List Price: $9.99

Okay, boys and girls. I have finished this re-reading this just in time to get my hot little nerdy hands onto the seventh and final in the Harry Potter series. The new book comes out tonight at midnight and I will be there with a big orange wristband and bells on.
I'm pretty sure that anyone who plans of ever reading HP knows what happens in this book and those who haven't have had things spoiled by them for sure. However: here is your spoiler warning! In this book HP and the gang are trying to get through a year where they don't battle Voldemort. Actually, they succeed, but fighting his death eaters is just as bad it turns out. Highlights of the book: I am happy to see Ginny and Harry snogging. Hopefully Ron and Hermione next? I am happy Luna made it through the fight. I like her, and I was worried that her secondary character nature might make her a target for J.K. Rowling's Hand of Doom. One more book to go, Luna, hang on! Total upsetting bummers. Um, gee, I dunno my boyfriend Snape killing Dumbledore? That's a pretty huge bummer. I definitely cried the first time I read it and almost became teary again this time during the funeral scene.
The coolest thing about this book is learning more about Voldemort's past. Also, Horcruxes are a very cool idea and completely badass. I also really liked getting to hang out with Dumbledore in this book. It was nice, and cozy, and I wish Dumbledore was my grandfather. Also, points to Fleur for still wanting to marry Bill even though his face is effed up. And p.s. I am totally psyched by the romance between Tonks and Lupin.
So, anyway: here are some of my theories, which are completely unsubstantiated and soon to be proven wrong. 1. Dumbledore really is dead 2. Snape is good. Those are basically the big ones. I have based my life on Snape being good, and will be seriously annoyed if this is not the case. Though, in all honesty, I would probably still make out with Alan Rickman if given the opportunity. I also think that Sirius might come back from the mystery grave. Here's why: that was the most bullshit death ever! Ooh, I got hit by a hex and stumbled into an archway of death. Balls! I say boo to it, and I hope he resurfaces. Also, who is going to be head of Gryffindor house now? I say maybe...Hagrid? I dunno.
So it's only a few hours away and I'm avoiding anyplace on the interweb that might lead me to a spoiler. So, if you are doing the same I send you to this completely safe place to take a fun sorting quiz (cause we can't all be cool enough to have a sorting hat at home like yours truly). Go here and see where you belong. The quiz said I was a Ravenclaw, which I buy. I like to think I'm smart but also acknowledge that I'm not as tough as maybe I should be. Okay, I'm off to nap in preparation for the late night of reading I will be doing. (p.s. I can't stop yelling spells in British accents) Sectusempre!

Photos

Hello my lovelies! I'm back from Florida and you can expect more books to be posted on a more regular basis now.
Here's the thing, I'm not one of those people who's gonna try to make you look at pictures of my vacation for hours, or my awesome amateur photography (but if you're interested, I do have a flickr, and you can check it out here also, I am awesome and so are my pictures). Having said that in Florida and we did Disney and Universal. I have to say I think Universal is cooler, and they have something I thought you'd enjoy, so I brought you back some pics.
That's right, Universal has a whole section dedicated to Dr. Seuss! I thought you'd enjoy seeing some pics of the Lorax since I have reviewed it on this site. And yes, he looks even more like Wilfred Brimley in person. The third pic is the Once-ler's House, and you can actually walk through the garden of Truffula Trees and stuff. Cool! Well, anywho: enjoy!

Strange Happenings by Avi

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152057900
• ISBN-13: 978-0152057909
• List Price: $15.00
• I finished this book on June 20

The subtitle of this book is Five tales of Transformation and that's exactly what it is. This was the last book for the challenge besides the extra credit book (which I'll be finishing later today) and it was a quick fun read.
When I was a little Bee I used to hate going to school and I would always wish I was my cat, Ivy, so I wouldn't have to go. Ivy got to sit at home in sunbeams all day and do whatever she wanted and I had to go to lame-ass school and do math (to this day math makes me ill). As you can guess, I never turned into a cat, but Tom did, in one of the stories in this book. Tom finds out, undoubtedly as I would have, that being a cat is kinda lame and he wants to switch back. Trouble is the former boy then cat now inhabiting Tom's human body does not want to switch back. Super weak! It just goes to show you kids, don't trust talking stray cats. Oh, who am I kidding? We all know I love talking animals.
I'm not sure what my favorite story in the book is, but I think the one titled "Curious" is sticking to me the most. It's about a kid who's very curious and sets out to find the truth about the town baseball mascot. And um, bad stuff ensues. Yikes. I think this one is too creepy for some younglings (by that I mean too scary for me). Did I mention that I'm afraid of mascots of any kind? Once a guy dressed up like a big stupid pink ice cream cone put his arm around me and I nearly punched his big pink gut. See, all I'm saying is, it could be a killer under there. Or Cher. I'm just saying, what's Cher been doing lately?
Anywho: this was a fun short one of stories that seemed somewhat familiar to me, like I'd heard them around a campfire before, or something. In fact, I think that would be the perfect place to hear them. Avi, of course, has written a gajillion books (48,317 results, Amazon? Really?) and this one probably just slipped out one morning while he ate his frosted flakes. But it was cool and worth a read, not to mention boasting a cool cover image. The last thing I read where people turned into other things was The Metamorphosis. Somehow, I think you won't find it hard to believe that this was a little tastier than Kafka.

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; Library Binding edition (August 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763617229
• ISBN-13: 978-0763617226
• List Price: $17.99
• I finished this book on June 3

My stars, I loved this! I haven't doled out the seal of approval in a while, so this is momentous. I was just waiting for something like this to come along. This is another one of those that I picked up and read in one sitting before bed. It was like a sweet and satisfying cup of tea with cookies (I'm very into cookies). The subtitle of this book is Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread which I love. And this cuteness has also won a Newbery Medal, which made me assume that it would be sad and possibly feature the gratutious death of one or more characters (possibly a child) but, awesomely, it was not like that at all. It was cute and sweet.
See, Despereaux is a tiny mouse, really tiny, with these great big ears, who lives in a castle. He doesn't want to be like other mice, he's not interested in hunting for crumbs, or scurrying, or even nibbling paper. In fact, he is much more inclined to read the romantic tales in the library than to eat them. So, of course, I want to snorgle Despereaux, despite the fact that he's a fictional mouse. Also, I love talking animals. But that's the problem, Despereaux talks to the beautiful Princess Pea, worse, he falls in love with her. This sets all the other little meeces' knickers into a twist and they banish tiny Despereaux to the dungeon to be eaten by rats (oh no!) From there, the story splits off and introduces us to a few different characters who all play a part in Despereaux's tale.
My favorite scene is where Despereaux is trying to tell the king something and he won't listen. The king basically puts his hands over his head and says "Nah nah, I can't hear you..." like a child, which I found hilarious. Not to mention that he has outlawed soup and rats, which, you know...makes perfect sense and is not at all crazy.
Another great part of the story is DiCamillo's voice. She talks to the reader, and even encourages the reader to go look up words, which I think is fantastic (I will not tell a lie, my dears, I had to look up a word). There are also sweet illustrations of the tiny mouse, the mean rats and the beautiful Princess Pea done by Timothy Ering. Anywho, the book was great, and it's one of mine for the challenge. I will definitely be reading more of Ms. Camillo's work in the future.

Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books; Reissue edition (November 15, 1992)
• ISBN-10: 0156454890
• ISBN-13: 978-0156454896
• List Price: $25.00
• I finished this book on May 1

So, this is the first book I've read for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, and I feel it was a good start. I chose this particular collection of folktales because I have read and liked Calvino in the past. I read Calvino's The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount in school and even laboriously picking it apart in a lit class didn't kill it for me. I also booktalked the Cloven Viscount for a split themed booktalk (cause I'm a nerd like that).
This book is exactly what it sounds like a massive collection of folktales collected and retold by Calvino from all over Italy. There are a ton of them in here - and they are all brief, one page or two a pop. Some of them are more fun than others. All of them are very reminiscent to me of other folklore and fables I've heard. Most of them involve someone outsmarting someone else and then getting to marry the princess. I have come to two conclusions: never trust a person you meet in the woods, and, two: I would have hated to be a princess back then, because it's clear that your parents would marry you off to just about anyone (including a baddie known as the 'mangy one' nice use of the word mange).
Another common theme in these stories is that no one ever does what they are told. For example, in one story called "Silver Nose" a young girl goes to work for a mysterious stranger with a Silver Nose, even though her mother tells her not to. First off, yikes stripes, who thinks it's going to be a good idea to work for a dude with a silver nose? How is that even attached? Anywho: this Mensa quality genius of a girl decides to open the one door in the house that old Silver Schnoz tells her not to (obviously an awesome plan) and of course, it's hell and Schnozzola is the Devil. Then two more sisters decide to open the forbidden door. All I'm saying is: I have power over my own curiosity. No one in this book does. That's all.
I liked Calvino's telling of the stories, but I wouldn't recommend reading the book cover to cover as I did. It becomes very repetitive after a while. As I do with my books of fairy tales I think this would be much more fun as light occasional reading. I also like skipping around books like this. For more fun stuff, check out some fables online and this fun Andersen's Fairy Tales site where you can hear a story (and send me an e-card).

Various titles by Nancy Carlson

So, okay, I'm student teaching, and we've been preparing for this author visit for about three weeks. Nancy Carlson is the author of over 50 children's picture books. We have about 30 of them in this particular library, and I estimate that I have read all of them at least once, and some of them approximately a gajillion times. I think the titles I've read the most are Think Big, Loudmouth George and the Fishing Trip and Louanne Pig in the Perfect Family.
I must say this outright, I do not love books. Okay, actually I like the Harriet books fine, and I don't hate Luanne, but: here's the thing. The characters are not cute. That bugs me. They are mostly animals. Luanne is a pig, Harriet is a dog (modeled after Carlson's golden retriever) and George is a bunny. Sure, some of them, like Henry the mouse, are cute. But it literally took me three weeks to decide what kind of animal Arnie even was (turns out he's a cat). I do not hate them or anything, I'm just not enamored with the characters. However, Ms. Carlson does her illustrations in colored pencils, and they are super colorful, and textured. I like the backgrounds and wallpapers much more than the characters themselves. Perhaps I am so critical of them at this point because I read them on average 5 times a day for a week and a half. I'm just saying.
Either way, it was really cool hanging out with her today. She was good with the kids (she did 4 presentations to 7 grade levels, something I would not want to do) and they all seemed into it. She showed them all how she drew the pictures, and I have to say that was neat. Her drawings (though, like I said, not all that cute) were flawless as she did them on a big easel with markers. She also personally signed many of the kids' books and drew a little picture in each of them. I totally appreciated that. Meeting her totally upped my opinion of her books.
The moral of this whole story had two parts: number 1, I'm glad I don't have to read Nancy Carlson books out loud anymore (too much of a good thing...you know?) and number 2, I heart meeting authors!
Now, for your viewing pleasure, an additional photo of Ms. Carlson and I together.

Environmental Children's Book Double Feature

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
• Hardcover: 72 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (August 12, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394823370
• ISBN-13: 978-0394823379

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (October 29, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395533082
• ISBN-13: 978-0395533086

I finished reading both of these on Mar. 19

So, my lucky lovelies, you are getting two books for the price of one. That's right, it's a crazy Booknerd two-for. I was pulling books today for a recycling unit, and came across Just a Dream, which I had never seen before. All the environmental love made me think of The Lorax, which I knew only by reputation, so, when I was at my library I picked up a copy (because that's what I do). They get a super special combo-blog because they are are birds of a (slightly mismatched) feather, and well, because I can.
Just a Dream is the story of a litter bug little boy who does not recycle. Instead of separating the garbage, he watches a movie about cool future robots on TV. That night he dreams of the future, but it is not the future with cool gadgets, but a future of a sad brown wasteland. There is little text and large expansive illustrations (this is all I could find) done with colored pencil. They are beautiful and hit the point home hard with pictures of our desolate planet-to-be if we keep on abusing it. There is also that device that I love in children's book (not sure if it has a name) where there is a little animal in most pages who is not mentioned in the text. In this case it's the boy's cat, who seems to be judging and teaching the boy, though it remains mute and shadowy. I always like to look for things like that in picture books. (I especially like Little Critter's Spider friend.) A google search tells me that this book is widely used in classrooms, so apparently I'm the last to hear about it. I must comment on the end though by saying that one boy planting a tree does not a planet save.
The Lorax is a little Wilfred Brimley looking environmentalist (no really, compare.) who warns against deforestation. See, the Once-ler just wants to make Thneeds, and to do so he must cut down all the Truffula Trees and this causes environmental mayhem. All the Seuss-tacular animals leave (in rhyme of course) and the world is a dark and sad place. This book was critically panned when Seuss released it, and was banned in California because it "criminalizes the forestry industry" (seriously) which it certainly does. However, I wrote a huge paper on Seuss (nee Geisel) once and I believe I read that this was one of the books he was the most proud of (though I clearly have no citation and am therefore the worst librarian ever).
I must say that I'm partial to the Seuss here, I like the illustrations and poetry and I think the message is handed out a little cleaner. Though I still give high marks to Van Allsburg because it is beautiful and a little scary.
Both stories are a bit heavy handed with their moral message, but I do not begrudge either of them. I feel that there are some messages with which we must scare children, this happens to be one of them. These are like child friendly versions of Mr. Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Though really, let's be honest, kids should like that because Al Gore looks like a Muppet.

Seen Art? by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• ISBN-10: 0670059862
• ASIN: B000HT2PKM
• List Price: $16.99
  
• I finished this book on Jan. 26

So yeah, this is a kid's book, but I really thought it was cute. It's a little kid who is looking for is friend Art and people send him to the Museum of Modern Art. Everyone he asks shows him different types of art. The book is long (horizontally) and skinny and the pages look like hallways in the art museum.
The little boy and the hallways are drawn but there are actual famous artworks along the hallways. Our hero passes by Starry Night, Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, and that creepy dada fuzzy saucer job. (Those of you who took art history know what I'm talking about, and it gives me the major creepies)
At the end of the book there is a little list of all the artwork included in the book and a credit for each of them.
Scieszka has made approximately a million kids books and most of them are illustrated by Smith. Scieszka's book series the Time Warp Trio is even a Saturday morning cartoon. I really dig all his stuff and those of you interested should check out their website, here.
The moral of this story: cute and worth your time. This would also be a nice gift for art nerds.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (July 2, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380977788
ISBN-13: 978-0380977789
List Price: $15. 99

I read this little book the other night, and I must admit that I had to sit up to finish it so I could know whether or not this book had a happy ending. The reading level for this book is listed at about 9 - 12 but I must confess that this gore loving scary movie junkie totally got the creepies from it.
Little Coraline is very smart, very bored, and very ignored by her parents. As you can probably guess this a bad combination and she gets into trouble. She finds a door to another version of her apartment with another version of her parents, who are waiting to make her theirs. Except they have buttons for eyes. That's right buttons for eyes. Does that give anyone the heebie jeebies other than me? Yikes. Anyway, they keep getting creepier and creepier until Coraline has to fight her way out.
In a related note why can't my cats talk like the one in this book? They would be more interesting, even if they only said 'feed me'.
I also found from some preliminary poking that this is going to be an animated movie with Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher. I have some problems with this. I know DF is really cute and talented but does she have to be in every child role ever? I also would like to see her tackle some older parts because I think she could really pull it off. Oooh, sorry, this is a book blog. But you can probably expect that I will talk about movies made from books I've read, just to let you know. But I think that the movie could be really cool, so I'll be sure to keep you updated.
This book was cool and creepy and definitely worth the short time it took to read.