book scout

Best New Holiday Books

Hello and Happy December, friends! I am in complete denial that this month is a third over already. Nope. I refuse to believe it. We are busy holiday-ing it up over here and pretending like January doesn't exist. The garland is hung, the cookies are baking, the terrible renditions of carols on the piano have started, and the tree is up! And sometimes down, thanks to the toddler. No seriously. I am going to have to tie that thing to the wall.

I have been meaning to put together a little post on some of my favorite new holiday books for aaaaaages, but then I missed Thanksgiving and Chanukah completely and wondered if I should even bother with Christmas, because here's the thing about Christmas books: they're just...not very good. As a whole. Now, don't get me wrong! They are often beautiful, and they tug at our heart strings (because: CHRISTMAS) and there are thousands to choose from, but there's not a whole lot of original content out there. And even those that retell traditional stories tend to use such cliched language, that it's no wonder some folks (my husband) prefer the Grinch.

I'm not saying there aren't some real gems out there. You've got your Christmas Magic, your Gift of the Magi, your Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, and so on, but you've also got a whooooooole lot of other formulaic stuff designed by the book-publishing industry to simply rake. in. dough. Those are not the books I want to give to my little fella this Christmas. Those are not the books I want to read to him in front of the tree that will likely be completely bare by the 25th thanks to his ornament thievery. We have decided to read one special book each Sunday of Advent this year, and I am trying to be intentional about choosing books that actually mean something.  

So I thought I'd put a little list together of some of my favorites this year (both silly and spiritual), if you're interested. or still looking for  gifts to give in the coming weeks. There are a few re-releases, but for the most part these are all newer titles well worth checking out of the library or buying at your local bookstore. I was actually shocked at the number of quality books that were released this year. I had originally intended to compile a list of four or five titles, but you guys I could hardly narrow it down to SIXTEEN. Maybe things are turning around in the world of holiday publishing? It's like a Christmas miracle! Check out the full list after the jump:

Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween, dear folks! Or just happy last day of October, if Halloween isn't your thing. Regardless, I hope you have marvelous plans for tonight. I promised you a million photos of my baby in costume in exactly the same setting with only slightly different poses and you guys, I AIM TO DELIVER. 

Seeing Ewan toddle around this year as Max from Where the Wild Things Are is a dream of mine come true. Maurice Sendak's death last year hit me hard; my love for his work runs very, very deep. Watching my little boy make mischief in the wolf suit, and reading him the story every night before bed are very small ways to pay tribute to an artist whose books I will never outgrow.
 

We will be visiting Daddy at the restaurant in costume this afternoon, and there will even be an attempt at one block of Trick-Or-Treating later tonight. (Which is maaaaybe the most foolish/ambitious thing I have ever attempted with a toddler, so WISH  ME LUCK.)

I knew it would be nearly impossible to take photos of him in costume on Halloween night, so one foggy morning this past weekend, we took a little walk down to the farm stand in our neighborhood and I let him run wild around the pumpkins. Nearly everyone who passed by stopped to talk to us about their love of the book, and he had a blast, and it was all around heart-warming. 

And then we treated ourselves to a dozen mini Nutella-covered donuts , so, you know. Best morning ever.

 

Have a fun and safe Halloween, everyone! What are your plans?

 

A Book-Scout Halloween Costume Round-Up!

My little strongman. (Ewan, last year.)

Can you believe Halloween is only a few short weeks away? And that I have been sitting on these literary Halloween costumes since September and have yet to post them? Gah. Where is my time machine? I don't know about you guys, but we have been laid LOW by sickness these past few weeks. I thought I'd lost the will to blog, but then it miraculously came back once I could breathe through at least one nostril. Nothing serious of course, just one cold on top of another as it happens when your toddler must touch ALL OF THE THINGS in the germ infested world. Not to mention the fact that we are all terrible sick people. Not one stoic, take-it-like-a-man person in the whole bunch. Nope. There has been a lot of sniffling and complaining and throwing ourselves onto furniture in melodramatic ways. So yes, FUN. It has made for a much mellow-er fall than years past, with only one trip to a pumpkin patch (with terribly-lit, cliched photos to come, I promise), but no apple picking or raking of leaves or  any other twee, face-book clogging activities of which to speak. Instead,  I am looking forward to Halloween, and dreaming about dressing my sweet little boy up in his first real trick-or-treating costume. 



Completely precious Olivia the Pig costume, by OneLittleMinute

I am a firm believer in ridiculous, literary Halloween costumes (I was everything from Raggedy Anne to Alice in Wonderland as a child), and Ewan will be carrying on the tradition this year. I gave a little sneak peak on Instagram awhile back, but I promise to take BILLIONS of photos once I can actually wrangle him into it. I've got one, maybe two years left before this kid wants to be a Transformer or Ninjago or Diego or something, so I am going to go ALL OUT while I still have the chance. In the meantime, can you believe these amazing get-ups? 



I mean, this Family Peter Pan costume WINS Halloween.  (By A Beautiful Mess)

I am filing this adorable James and the Giant Peach costume away for next year. It would be perfect for a ginger-headed, balloon-loving toddler. Or just MY ginger-headed, balloon loving toddler. Also, check out the equally darling Flloyd from Stuck costume. Both over at SmallFry blog. Oliver Jeffers forever, amirite?

These Madeline and Miss Clavel costumes by Erica Holland are basically the reason to keep having babies until you have twin girls, right? (JUST KIDDING. sort of.) 

Cutest, tiniest, Mary Poppins costume by Emphasis Added.

And in case you weren't dead yet:



Baby Charlie Brown costume. (Originally posted by NichThomas.)

 
Last Halloween, Ewan was just a wee, half-bald little thing of two months. I remember it had been an extremely difficult, fussy day, full of intermittent rain. It was around that time the not-sleeping started for both of us and postpartum stuff was hitting me hard, and the thought of taking a tiny baby out of the house to join in the holiday festivities felt so completely overwhelming. But I forced myself to try, and I put his little lion hat on, and tucked him into the Ergo and left the house for a long walk at sunset. And I will never forget that walk, and the odd surge of hope I felt in seeing all our neighbors and their families. It was a little spark of light in an otherwise dark time,  all the glowing pumpkins and happy children, and I remember thinking that next year Ewan would be one of those children and it would all be okay and we were going to make it through and it would be good. And oh has it ever. Oh my, has it ever been good. 



So what do you guys have planned? Any other cute, bookish costume ideas? Feel free to share in the comments!

Friday Feature: Secret Garden Coloring Book

So I'm not sure if a coloring book actually counts as a Friday Feature, but I am procrastinating cleaning the bathroom and it is also the most beautiful coloring book I have ever seen, so let's just go with it. I just discovered The Secret Garden Coloring Book, by Johanna Basford recently, but I believe it was originally published in Europe and released in the States earlier this year. (You can get it at most of the big bookstores now.)  I mean, can you believe this thing? AMAZE. It would make a fantastic gift for any small person who loves the story, or any grown up really. Grown ups like to color too! Or  I do. Coloring is straight-up therapeutic. The interior is equally stunning with lots of puzzles and drawing exercises and lovely things that make me want to be eight years old again. It's going on the book-scout wishlist, even though it will likely not enter my life for a loooong while. Or maybe ever. Unless baby boy has a penchant for coloring flowers down the road. (You never know, I guess.) For now, Ewan and I will be sticking with our $1 Target bin Halloween coloring book for our early morning crayon time. It pretty much kills me to watch him scribble for a few seconds and then look at the page in absolute shock like, 'WHOOOAAAAA. Marks are appearing and I AM A WIZARD! ' And then he eats all the crayons. The end.

How To Tell a Story

 

 

Well, this is  completely delightful: How to Tell a Bedtime Story in 5 Steps, by (new-to-me illustrator) Charlotte Trounce. I am partial to Twinklemist Rainbowstar and the Black Ham Forest, but you know, to each his own. I still remember some of the bedtime stories my parents made made up for us as kids, especially when we were the main characters. Check the whole thing out over at realsimple.com or in the latest print issue.

Also,

Reading Aloud

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

A Bedtime Lullaby That Actually Works.

 

Tiny Things

So are you guys familiar with Maggie Rudy? I'm sure you are, but in the off chance that you haven't seen her work, then wait, what are you doing here? To the library with you! Or go read this lovely little article. I'll be here when you get back. Her book, The House that Mouse Built, is astonishing, really. The mice she makes and the worlds she creates for them are so intricate and full of emotion. This one is a particuular favorite of mine. As is this one. (Don't I know it, Mama Mouse. Don't. I. Know it.) Not to mention her tributes to Maurice Sendak and Brian Jacques, which are achingly sweet. If you enjoy tiny things (I do), dioramas, miniatures, mice, The Borrowers or Beatrix Potter stories, fairy houses, chairs made of seashells, or boats made out of leaves, then her work is for you. Or your child. I won't tell. She happens to live in Portland, and I count myself very lucky that she and my boss are pals. Because, people, SHE HAS MADE A MINIATURE REPLICA OF OUR BOOKSTORE. WITH MICE. IN  HALLOWEEN COSTUMES. And now I am dead. My photo up there does not do it justice. It will be installed in the store until Halloween in one of the diorama boxes nestled in the picture book section, so you can check them out in person if you happen to be local. If not, you can take a peek at the characters here. That is all.

Book-Scout over and out.

P.S. 

Two words: mouse. bikini.

 

I does what I likes and I likes what I do.

Mary Poppins Remix by Pogo

So this has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that it is completely DELIGHTFUL and I couldn't resist sharing it with you. Because 1.) I am a die hard Mary Poppins fan. Folks who have known me since way back when will confirm it to be my number one favorite Disney movie, with Peter Pan a close second. and 2.) I have to offer you something while I am busy putting together a little first birthday shindig for my sweet boy. His actual birthday is not until the 9th, which is fantastic, because I will be treating the party as a practice run. You know. Emotionally speaking. (Just kidding, I will probably cry all week.)

Friday Feature: The Day the Crayons Quit

Okay, so I realize that it might *technically* no longer be considered Friday in just about every time zone but my own, but in the Tremendously Huge Book of the First Year of Parenting which I totally just now made up and someone should really write already,  there is a well-known rule that states anything finished before midnight of any day can be said to have been completed ON THAT DAY. Book-scout's honor. (HA. See what I did there? You have my permission to send me hate mail for that.) 

So it probably goes without saying that I don't have a ton of time to post full-length book reviews anymore. In between keeping up with the 52 weeks project, and trying to write down everything I want to remember about this crazy (and wonderful) season of my life, there isn't a lot of room left for book-related shenanigans. Which is a shame because I LOVE book-related shenanigans. I still spend a good portion of my days talking and thinking about books for children and I have been searching for a way to keep that part of this blog alive. I think I may have found a solution. The Friday Feature: Books I'm currently reading, or in love with, or just plain curious about. Maybe the cover is super cool. Maybe the characters are fantastic. Or maybe I'm just  revisiting something from my own childhood. I don't know. I'll have to see where the spirit leads. Maybe you'd like to share what you're loving at the moment too? We can have a little Friday Feature party, is what I'm saying. Even if it technically happens on a Saturday. 

As soon as I saw it, I knew the very first Friday Feature would have to be The Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers.  New picture book. Instant favorite. I've got a full length review of this one coming out soon in Northwest Kids Magazine, and I'm sure you've all already read it, but OH MY GOSH I LOVE IT. I love it every time I read it. The book release was hilarious and the premise is divine. Ducan's crayons quit for varioius reasons. Red is tired of working holidays, Black wants to do more than outline things, White is having an existential crisis, and Yellow and Orange have come to blows over who gets to be the color of the sun. So much fun. Makes me totally excited for the not so distant day when I get to buy my little man his very first set of crayons. Even though he will probably eat them. 

Feel free to share your own current crushes in the comments, be they old, new, or (gasp) even written for adults. Happy weekend, all. xoxo

Work It.

  

The famous red chair, and my crazy tights, respectively.
You can follow me on instagram as @andrea_bookscout as long as you don't mind a whole lot of gratuitous baby photos.)

So I woke up one morning a few weeks ago said to myself, Hey, Wordstock is this weekend! And then I was like, Wait. I am WORKING Wordstock. And I head back to work at the bookstore right after that.  And then I was all, But I have not stock-piled milk and what about my baaaaabyyyyy. And then I was like, Get it together, woman. You've been staring at the same wall for three months. You love your son, but you are ready for this. (Did I mention my baby is nearly three months old now? THREE MONTHS. Gah. Where is my time machine?) So after some furious pumping and arranging schedules with grandma (a.k.a. the best babysitter in the unverse), I had a great time at Wordstock, and am set to return part-time to the bookstore this week.

The festival was fantastic, although a bit bigger this year than last. Last year, we had only one booth and we were particularly focused on middle grade fiction thanks to an awesome scavenger hunt my coworker organized with Pseudonymous Bosch, author of The Name of This Book Is Secret. (There were disguises and clues and we made a trillion fake mustaches and it was EPIC.) But this year we had two booths, one entirely devoted to Young Adult fiction (which I managed, holla!), and the other was a massive display of picture book and middle grade titles along with some of our store's famous vending machines. The visiting authors and illustrators were kind of spectacular. David Levithan* and John Klassen and Colin Meloy and Mac Barnett, just to name a few.

*To be honest, I read very little during my pregcnancy except for books on, you know, how not to kill your baby and why pregnancy is weird and kind of awful for some people and guess what: YOU ARE THAT PERSON, but I digress. When I DID manage to keep my eyes open to read for more than a few seconds at a time, it was Y.A. So I was particularly excited this year to meet and talk to a lot of authors whose books I'd been pouring over all summer. Fans of Lauren Oliver's, Before I Fall (which I reviewed here) FYI: David Levithan's new book Every Day is excellent and right up your alley.

I really haven't quite processed the fact that I will be heading back to work in like, 6 hours (damn-hell early shift), and leaving the Little with adoring family members and then trying to talk to other adults about things not related to my baby and/or diapers and/or my boobs. I am sure I will have much to say about this after it actually happens, but right now my brain is kind of shot. I have had a bit of trouble finding time to write lately (obvs) with all the mother-loving teeth this child has been cutting since 8 weeks of age and just generally having no idea what I am doing whatsoever on a daily basis. But, you know. The only thing constant is change. And poop. Poop and change. I have been thinking a whole lot about these last few months and parenthood in general, but I will save those thoughts for another time, because right now? Right now there is wonderful little person with reddish hair and big blue eyes in the other room, laughing at my husband's jokes and waiting for a bath. As good as it gets.

More soon.

All love,
*Andrea


 

The Poop Shelf

Kate Beaton is my hero.

Oh my gosh, you guys, I started reading some of the GoodReads reviews of titles I linked to in the last post and they are HILARES. I love that a book like Where The Wild Things Are, which I would probably consider to be one of the greatest picture books ever written and illustrated, if not the greatest children's book of all time, can get, like, underwhelming, two-star reviews. (Of course, there will always be insane people who want to 'educate' the public about the evils of a particular title, but the 'meh' reviews? They are the best.) The Poop Shelf. The POOP SHELF. Honestly though, it just proves that literature is at least semi-objective and we probably all have a Poop Shelf. Kids are the champions of the Poop Shelf. (Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and all but one of the George R.R. Martin books are on mine. Shocking, I know.) What about you? Care to share who lives on yours?