SurLaLune Book Club: Vote for January

The response was pretty strong for a SurLaLune Book Club, so let's try this out.  I picked 10 recent titles published this past year and put them in a poll at the bottom of the page to vote.  I am going to put them in a list here, too, so you can click through and read more about them.  I would copy blurbs, but I am doing this on the fly and don't have much time to create the list beyond plugging in titles and links, so here they are in no particular order:

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde

Reckless by Cornelia Funke (The fairy tale usage is much more subtle in this title than the others.)

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales (This is by far the longest of the books with 40 tales, so this will be a bigger commitment than most of the others on the list. Not intended to be discouraging at all, but I want everyone to actually read the books and so must forewarn.)

Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films by Jack Zipes (This is by far the most expensive and won't be as readily available from libraries yet.)

A Narrative Compass: Stories that Guide Women's Lives edited by Betsy Hearne

Fairy Tale Anthologies for Grade School Aged

I'm often asked to recommend fairy tale collections so today I'm offering a list of books that are suitable for more grade school aged readers. Mostly the decision depends on your taste in illustrations and tales.  Many of these are perennial favorites with readers, too.  Please feel free to share your own favorites in the comments!

The Golden Book of Fairy Tales (Golden Classics) (Still the most requested title and fortunately still in print.)

Classic Fairy Tales by Scott Gustafson

Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys by Jane Yolen

Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls by Jane Yolen

Classic Fairy Tales: Candlewick Illustrated Classic by Berlie Doherty and Jane Ray

Tales of Hans Christian Andersen: Candlewick Illustrated Classic

Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy  Cousins (This is not a usual collection but fun for kids who already are very familiar with the tales.)

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Josee Massee. These are poems retelling the tales in unexpected ways and the book is just magical overal. (Might as well get it now because I really hope it wins the Caldecott and then sells out its current print run next month.  Crossing fingers...)

Mythology for the Holidays (Or Anytime)

Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes Pop-Up by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (who we all know I love) was released earlier this year and I never posted about it here.  I finally bought a copy last month and now I have to share. 

Here's the book description:

For all of recorded history, humans have sought to understand Earth’s mysteries in the realm of the divine — and aspired to conduct themselves as heroes. Only gods, of course, could push the sun across the sky,forge entire continents, and impel mountains to touch the clouds. In this stunning volume, the incomparable team of Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda take us to Ra-Atum’s land in Ancient Egypt; above the Grecian clouds to Zeus’s Mount Olympus; up to Norse god Odin’s frozen north; to the Far East, where the Jade Emperor sits in the heavens; into the wilds of Oceania, where Pele’s volcanic rage simmers below the earth; and to many more lands and times, all rich with sacred myths and legends.

Essentially this book offers two page spreads of various mythologies from around the world ranging from the Egyptian and Greek to the Norse, Chinese and Native American. The pop-ups are intricate and interesting as to be expected from Sabuda and Reinhart. A great book for anyone who loves mythology, especially children learning about it for the first time.  My niece was on her way to becoming a Greek mythology scholar earlier this year thanks to Percy Jackson and her own insatiable reading habits. A trip to Nashville's Parthenon was a grand success.

Of course, the all time best-selling and beloved mythology collection for young readers for decades has been D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire.  If you are acquiring that one, you might as well add in their D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, too.  I have to say that since I am a full quarter Norwegian and quite a bit Scandinavian in general. I wish someone had given either one of these books to me as a child. But if someone had, this might be a mythology blog instead of more fairy tale oriented.  All for the lack of a gift book to a precocious child reader, here we are today.  :)

 

A SurLaLune Book Club?

Speaking of Oprah Book Clubs...

Now that the subscribed readers for this blog is roughly 400 daily readers--through various sources--I have been considering a monthly book club for SurLaLune. We could vote on a fairy tale related book and read one together each month of 2011, old or new releases.  If this interests you, please say so in the comments and I can set up a voting choice to choose the book for January.

Edited to add:

As usual, I'm pretty much posting off the top of my head and brainstorming more than planning.  If you are interested in the book club, in your comments feel free to say yes (or no) and start nominating titles that interest you.  I'll list those and some others for us to vote on for the January title.

Sort of Off Topic: Kindles and Such

The blogosphere is alive with rumors that Oprah will once again choose the Kindle as one of her favorite things, putting a run on them later today and tomorrow, most likely causing a sell-out.  So if you were considering one for the holidays, today would be a good time to choose one to insure you have it by Christmas. Supposedly her book club will also be A Tale of Two Cities which I have read enough times in my life, thank you very much.  That English degree of mine insured that.  But I have it along with all of Dickens on my own Kindle.  After two years, my Kindle library almost rivals my library of dead tree books which has been shrinking a little with the Kindle's convenience.

 

Kindle 3G Wireless Reading Device, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology

Besides the ease of reading with it, many authors are starting to rerelease old titles for the ebook reader only.  I'm hoping this trend takes off for the new year.  And I wish the estates of some older authors would pick up on this trend, too, such as Eleanor Farjeon and other authors who played with fairy tales.

Anyway, here is one of the titles:

The Rapunzel Trap by Kathy Lynn Emerson

Poem: The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen passed our way last night,
Between the darkness and the light,
And flowers from an enchanted star,
Fell showerlike from her flying car.

And silently through all the hours,
The trees have borne their magic flowers,
And now stand up with dauntless head,
To catch the morning’s gold and red.

by Dollie Radford in 1907

From Poemhunter.com:  Biography of Dollie Radford

Caroline Maitland (1858 – 1920) was an English poet and writer. She married in 1883 Ernest Radford, and wrote as Dollie Radford. They had three children, one being Maitland Radford.

Her friends included Eleanor Marx, whom she knew through a Shakespeare reading group attended by Karl Marx, and Amy Levy. Her papers are housed at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA.

The illustration is by Milo Winter.