These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

From the "Oh-Do-I-Wish-I-Had-Thought-of-This-First" Department comes the combination - the collision, if you will - of two of the greatest parts of life. As John Madden would say, "Here, see, we got a football game. There's the eleven guys and this big, green field and everything and they're playing football. And then - BOOM! - there's a pigeon and, y'know, that pigeon, he's gonna play football in the National Fooball League."

Read all about it, including what I believe is an exclusive interview with the pigeon and his spokesman, Mo Willems, at Football Outsiders, a site highly recommended by yours truly.

Football. Children's books. My basement is a shrine to both at once. How many people can claim that? (I'm counting hands ... let's see ... there's me ... and, uh ... the resident seven-year-old's got his hand up ... so that's ... two. Me and the boy, and we share the same basement.)



And really, honestly, if the pigeon was going to play in the NFL, what other team would he join? (I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be too happy with that video's caption, either.)

The Autumn Wind is a Pigeon
Blustering in from sea
With a rollicking song he sweeps along
swaggering boisterously
His face is weather beaten
He wears a hooded sash
With his silver hat about his head
And a bristly black moustache
He growls as he storms the country
A villain big and bold
And the trees all shake and quiver and quake
As he robs them of their gold
The Autumn wind is a Raider
Pillaging just for fun
He'll knock you 'round and upside down
And laugh when he's conquered and won.

North! Or Be Eaten - The Ain't It Creative Angle

One of the components of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness that immediately drew me to it was, simply put, its uniqueness. Sure, it shares character traits with traditional fantasy, but there are aspects I'd never seen before. Which of course brings us to...

The Ain’t It Creative Angle

All of the quirks readers quickly came to love (or love to hate) in Book One are back. The toothy cows of Skree are still toothy and vicious. Totaters are still a vegetable of choice. Horned hounds still haunt the forest. Now added to the mix are Bomnubbles and snickbuzzards and quill diggles and a gargan rockroach.

Footnotes are still used, although less than in Book One. This time the footnotes offer complimentary information to events, characters, or places in the story. There aren't as many invented sources and Skreean publishing houses, but if it's included in the footnotes, it must be important to know that the "unknown areas beyond the edges of the maps were referred to as 'the places beyond the edges of the maps.'" And any reading would be incomplete if the reader wasn't told that Alma Rainwater was considered a revolutionary poet because her style "rhymed and followed a strict form called ba-dum-ba-dum pentameter."

And rest assured that Janner, Tink, and Leeli still study their T.H.A.G.S., the "Three Honored and Great Subjects: Word, Form, and Song. Some silly people think that there's a fourth Honored and Great Subject, but those scientists are woefully mistaken."

At least the mathematicians have some company.

North! Or Be Eaten - The Darkness Angle

I loved how On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness made me smile. The smiles don't disappear completely with North! Or Be Eaten, but the crease between my eyebrows grew more predominant. I can't stay this way throughout the series. It can't. That doesn't mean it can't get worse before it gets better, but in order to have a satisfying victory at the end - which I'm hoping there is - readers must have a true understanding of how bad the situation for the characters has become. It's now much clearer, which brings us to...

The Darkness Angle

It was easy to think and hope, as Tink does, that it would be much easier to quietly go back to the cottage and live peacefully and quietly without drawing any undue attention from Fangs, Gnag the Nameless, or even a stray garden thwap. But as details of Gnag’s rule are revealed, it becomes clearer how repressive his rule truly is. There is no chance of quiet peacefulness anymore.

The Stranders living on the banks of the River Blapp live self-sufficiently, relying on grit, determination, and a good amount of wickedness. Children taken on the Black Carriage are simply “tools” working in the cruel Fork! Factory! making Fang weapons. Children and families, when given a seemingly obvious choice of freedom or joining Gnag, repeatedly choose the latter. The homeless and desperate adults of Dugtown are willing to do all manner of evil to reclaim their stolen children.

And Podo. Oh, Podo.

North! Or Be Eaten - The Bigger Picture Angle

My post title calls this "The Bigger Picture Angle," but the working title for me has been...

The “I’m Being Set Up For Something Bigger” Angle

Remember the moment you discovered that the name Sirius Black first appeared in Sorcerer’s Stone? That I-cannot-believe-it’s-been-there-all-along moment when you began to understand, just a bit, how the entire tapestry was being woven, yarn by unbelievable yarn, right from the start and you began reading more carefully, determined not to let another clue slip by?

Is it possible for an author to have that same feeling while writing? I’m guessing it is. I’m guessing Andrew Peterson is enjoying his yarn spinning so much that when he pulls a character, mentioned once, from page 8 of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, it’s impossible for him not to tell you – which he does in the footnotes on page 191.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is full of foreshadow and unanswered questions and facts planted, not as throwaway details, but as foundational blocks upon which the entire story is being built. Many are revealed in North! Or Be Eaten – Podo skipping the Dragon Day Festival, Leeli’s music, the mysterious sea dragons, Oskar’s weapons cache, Peet’s talons – and, I’m guessing, plenty more are right there in plain sight, waiting to be discovered.

North! Or Be Eaten - The Character Angle

It’s taken me a while to complete my review of North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson, mostly because I couldn’t decide which angle to take. I'm still not sure I chose the correct one. So over the next couple days I’m presenting all of them here. My official review can be found over at Help Readers Love Reading!

Ultimately I went with...

The Character Angle:

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness introduced us to the Igibys, but North! Or Be Eaten delves much deeper in the characters. Janner begins to understand the responsibility that comes with the title of Throne Warden and the difficulty of achieving the standard expected of him. While he deals with each lapse in responsibility, he sinks a bit closer to what Peet has become because of his own perceived failures, even while Peet soars, newly refreshed, into his new responsibility of protecting the Jewels of Anniera.

Tink’s act-first, think-later personality hasn’t changed, but the stakes have grown. As dangerous as it was for him to leave Janner to run into the forest alone in Book One, now that Gnag the Nameless is aware of the Jewels’ presence, Tink’s actions have him facing something more deadly than a toothy cow of Skree.

Leeli displays maturity and calm when others are on the verge of panic. Her musical ability becomes more than music, but contains within it the power to encourage and uplift her siblings.

Podo’s pirate history is a far cry from innocent seafarer. He was a pirate, in the true sense of the word.

Oskar N. Reteep is … well, he’s still roly-poly but his experiential knowledge is quickly catching up to his book knowledge.

Nia, as circumstances demand, becomes more queen-like with each passing chapter. She leads forcefully when necessary and lovingly when needed but always remains a mother who loves her children, who wants to protect them, all the while allowing them to grow and become the leaders their kingdom needs.

So that's the angle I went with for my review. Check back over the next few days as I offer a few more thoughts about North! Or Be Eaten.

There's 104 Days of Summer Vacation...

...and school comes along just to end it.
So the annual problem for our generation
is finding a good way to spend it.

I hate to break the news to everyone out there, especially the teachers, but the summer is winding down. How's the summer been going? I've been running over my checklist, courtesy of my children and their new-found friends Phineas and Ferb, and things aren't going so well.

Building a rocket - I built a graduate portfolio. Does that count?
Fighting a mummy - I don't recall even a disagreement with my mother, let alone a mummy.
Climbing up the Eiffel Tower - How about the stairs up to the back door of the cottage?
Discovering something that doesn't exist - Still looking for the motivation to repaint the bathroom.
Giving a monkey a shower - I get the boy to bathe once or twice a week, how's that?
Surfing tidal waves - Floating on a air mattress in a gentle breeze?
Creating nanobots - I got nothing.
Locating Frankenstein's brain - Not exactly, but getting my own brain focused on graduate work during summer is sort of the same.
Finding a dodo bird - The crow that shows up outside my window at 4:55 each morning is gonna wish he was extinct!
Painting a continent - The bathroom still ain't painted.
Driving your sister insane - The boy's got a handle on this one for me.

And, of course, one more:

Making a title sequence - All I gots is a blog, but maybe I'll start watching iCarly and produce my own web show...

Public Enemies - A Reader's Response

Before I saw Public Enemies, I wrote in my book review (since revised), “It will be interesting to see how a film can pack all the facts neatly into 140 minutes. Equally interesting will be if the film can keep the facts away from fiction, unlike many films of the past, as Bryan Burrough frequently states. For example, will Anna Sage, the ‘woman in red,’ be wearing an orange skirt (fact) rather than a red dress (fiction)?”

The answer is an emphatic … kinda. Yes, Anna Sage was in an orange skirt, but why was she one of the first people in the movie? Her apartment was the last place Dillinger lived. At best it made most of the movie an unclear flashback. At worst it was a purposeful alteration of the facts.

No, the movie isn’t a documentary, but after reading the remarkably well-researched book, it’s easy to see embellishments are not necessary.

Well, maybe embellishments are necessary for Hollywood, but not for the story itself. The episode at Little Bohemia Lodge is a great example. Here are a few notable Hollywood adaptations:

Hollywood-ization #1:
Book (Fact): The gang arrived on Friday afternoon and enjoyed two days of rest, planning to stay until Monday morning. Growing restless, they decided to leave Sunday night instead, not knowing the FBI was on their way for a raid that night. When the raid started, the gang was already preparing to leave the lodge.

Movie (Fiction): The gang arrived, divvied up their money, and had just laid down to rest, when the shooting started. By all appearances the FBI is a well-oiled, fast-acting, crime-fighting machine.

Hollywood-ization #2:
Book: Dillinger, Homer Van Meter, Red Hamilton, and Tommy Carroll all jumped out the back windows and quickly disappeared into the woods after the FBI’s initial shots on the lodge. The FBI mistakenly believed their shots had driven the gangsters back into the lodge and the agents kept the now empty lodge surrounded until dawn believing gang members remained inside.

Movie: Shooting, shooting, shooting. Daring leap out the windows. FBI pursuit. More shooting. High speed chase. Some more shooting. Car wreck. Shooting. Bloody death.

Hollywood-ization #3:
Book: Baby Face Nelson escaped on his own, stole one car which stalled, then shot two FBI agents and stole their car which subsequently threw a rod. Nelson traveled 20 miles on foot to the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation where he met Ollie Catfish and his wife Maggie. Pretending to be a game warden, Nelson stayed until the following Friday when he finally made his escape.

Movie: Melvin Purvis gave chase and killed Baby Face Nelson who had joined Dillinger and Red Hamilton in the great (nonexistent) Little Bohemia Chase. (Nelson wasn’t actually killed for another seven months on November 27.)

My wife hadn’t read the book but offered two great observations. First, she said the movie was high on shooting, low on plot. Second, she said it was like they made a four hour movie and then cut out 100 minutes of back story. Simply adding headings like Miami: December, 1933 or even June, 1934 on the screen would have helped. Having read the book, I knew all the characters and events and explanations. Without that, I’d have been lost.

One thing the movie nailed on the head was the feeling readers/movie-goers have toward Dillinger. As frustrated as it made me, as I read, I continually found myself on the side of the criminals, just as many people in the general public did at the time. After all, Dillinger once told a bank customer who’d placed his money on the counter, “You go ahead and take your money. We don’t want your money. Just the bank’s.” During the Great Depression, that sort of attitude placed gangsters in the public’s corner facing off against a banking system and government that had let them down. I turned to my wife halfway through the movie and asked, “Whose side are you on?” She just smiled and shook her head.

Why the movie started with Melvin Purvis shooting Pretty Boy Floyd is beyond me. This actually happened three months after Dillinger was killed. All it did was portray Purvis as an FBI hero, cool, calm in the face of the most wanted, when in actuality, he allowed more gangsters to escape under his watch than were captured. J. Edgar Hoover grew increasingly disappointed with Purvis’s leadership. Due to his rare successes, Purvis could more accurately be described as a blind pig who occasionally found an acorn. (BIG acorns, but nonetheless...)

People who make movies know what they’re doing, apparently. The movie is a success. It’s unfortunate that a nonfiction book has been made into a historical fiction movie. Bryan Burrough did a magnificent job researching and detailing the exploits of numerous gangs of 1933-1934, sometimes down to the minute. The movie was entertaining. The book, however, was fascinating and educational.

Pack It Up and Move It Out

I've got a new newspaper column today all about vacation. Actually, it's about getting ready to go on vacation. Check the list, pile it up, and pack it in. Make sure you have everything and make sure it all fits.

Here's the article, or here's the printable version.

Ah, Researchers. They'll Study Anything.

It seems Belgian researchers are studying how electronics can be used in ... eh-hem ... potty training. The study uses diapers with electronic inserts that play a pleasant musical sound when they become wet. The music alerts adults, enabling them to change the diaper more quickly, provide positive feedback, and "help children focus on bladder control more efficiently."

The results, published in Neurology and Urodynamics, which is apparently a real journal, have been promising. According to the article, researcher Dr. Peter Richel said he did not see a downside to the musical method. (But what if the child likes the song? Won't it be sort of the opposite of Pavlov's dogs?)

Anyway, I always thought potty training came down to a couple of books. One to teach the general concept:





And one to keep the child seated for a while:

Mother's Day and Father's Day

I'm claiming "End-of-the-School-Year-itis" here.

Today, one week after our last week of school, my latest column appears in the newspaper. Though there are still loose ends to tie up at school, it's technically summer. So I'm up and posting about my latest newspaper column which appears today. Happy Father's Day even if it is a little early. (Or here's the printable version.)

However, one month ago, in the midst of finishing up a school year, my Mother's Day column appeared. And nary a mention here. I'm pretty sure I included something in there about moms being forgiving. Anyways, summer's here, and I'm making up for lost time. Happy Mother's Day, even if it is a little late. (Or here's the printable version.)

Where Are All the Sports Books?

After finishing a read aloud recently, two boys ... requested ... suggested ... demanded(?) ... well, whatever. It went something like this: "Hey, Mr. W! When're we gonna read a sports book?"

"What do you mean? We've read sports books," I responded.

"Like what?"

They were right. I was stuck. They suggested Six Innings by James Preller, a book they both read and enjoyed, but they'd both already read and enjoyed it, and I was worried it wouldn't translate well to a read aloud. Really, I like baseball. (It's taken 15 years, a trip to Fenway Park, and a good Milwaukee Brewers team to take me out of the funk created by canceling a World Series, but I've come back around.)

But let's be honest. Baseball is slow enough already. That, coupled with some non-athletic students and May sunshine out the classroom window, didn't seem like a recipe for a successful read aloud.

"I'll find something over the weekend," I assured them.

Whoops. My substantial bookshelves had... Well, they had... Not much! Aarrgghh!

I grew up playing sports in all kinds of city leagues and even played two sports in college. My kids know what "Don't rub it!" means in baseball and what kind of receiver it takes to go across the middle. I subscribe to a blog about uniforms for crying out loud! And I have no sports books?!?

I looked back at the list of Newbery winners and honors and found about as much as was on my bookshelves. Just a quick glance at the past 20 years and a quick jog of the memory reveals:

• Basketball in After Tupac and D Foster.
• Hockey in Everything on a Waffle.
• Baseball in Joey Pigza Loses Control.
• Baseball in Maniac Magee.

If we wanted to be generous (veeeery generous) we could add:

• Digging in Holes.
• Surviving (barely) in Out of the Dust.
• Princessification in Princess Academy and Ella Enchanted.
• Playing Catch in The Giver (Most people get distracted from this athletic scene when Jonas sees red in the apple.) Oh, and let's not forget cycling. That's in there too.
• Bonesetting in The Midwife's Apprentice.

In the last twenty years of Newbery awards there's one (one?) book where sports would be considered a major factor: Joey Pigza Loses Control.

Kate, a recent commenter on Help Readers Love Reading!, mentioned Matt Christopher books in her comments for the new Gym Shorts series. I'm familiar with those, but haven't read them since grade school. Am I right remembering that although the books feature different sports the plot remains basically unchanged?

So I did some brainstorming (OK, your topic is "Sports Books." Go.) and here's what I came up with:

• The Comeback Kids series by Mike Lupica, a sports writer for the New York Daily News.
• Mike Lupica's books for older readers such as The Big Field, Summer Ball, and Miracle on 49th Street.
• Books by former NFL player Tim Green - Football Genius, Football Hero, and Baseball Great.
• Books by John Feinstein - Last Shot, Last Dance, and Vanishing Act.
• Matt Christopher books.
• The Gym Shorts series by Betty Hicks.
• Dan Gutman's Baseball Card Adventure series and The Million Dollar Putt/Strike/Shot/Kick/Etc. series.

That's where my list ends. And that's pretty sorry (sorry in quantity, not quality). I haven't read too many of the above, although a few are on the shelves patiently waiting. I did enjoy Football Genius, but unfortunately for my two students, it was a library copy.

When we returned on Monday morning, I told the boys I had good news and bad news. The bad news was that I didn't have a book like the one they requested. The good news was that my new summer project, thanks to these two gentlemen, was to build up the sports books in the classroom library so future readers don't have the same problem.

So, what am I missing? I'd love to hear suggestions - please comment or email - so that we can get our athletes books about athletes. We spend a lot of time convincing them to read, and boys like this can be the hardest to convince, and then, even in a sports lover's classroom like mine, there is a limited selection. I'd love to build up a list of books we can quickly recommend.

(By the way, I ended up giving them a choice between How Angel Peterson Got His Name, which I described as extreme sports minus the safety equipment and ESPN, and Mudshark, which I described as a book featuring a sport called Death Ball. Both are by Gary Paulsen. They chose Mudshark. It was a rollicking success.)

So How Are You Spending Your Weekend?

I'm playing in the World's Largest Trivia Contest. No kidding.

Listen live, sometime before midnight on Sunday. Get some sleep for me.