A Very Christmas-y Post

Well the weather outside sure is frightful...the temperatures have gone back up again and I'm back to shorts and sandals. It's officially 75 degrees right now in New Orleans and that's a cool down from earlier. But we're supposed to get some cool weather coming on Sunday night and it's supposed to be down right cold again for Christmas Eve and Christmas! Yay! But the heat has not spoiled my Christmas mood! No indeed!

I awoke this morning...er, or noonish, to a package waiting on my doorstep from Santa in the form of Robin from A Fondness of Reading, one of my absolute favorite bloggers who is my Secret Santa :) I was overwhelmed by the package she put together for me! She had a great little card to accompany this set of gifts wishing me and my family a Merry Christmas. All of the gifts come from her region of the US, up in the Northwest in Washington and they're just perfect! I love candles and all things Eastern, so the little glass Lotus flower votive candle holder is just perfect. It's beautiful and made by a local artisan. She included some delicious goodies like dark chocolate covered cherries, a set of 3 delicious sounding jams and preserves, and these great sounding coffee tins! All stuff I love. There's a book that sounds great called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by a local author named Sherman Alexie with some really cool illustrations! You know I love that ;) And then there's a wonderful Christmas CD that I've been enjoying all day and the best thing about the CD is that the proceeds from it go to the Children's Hospital which is near and dear to my heart as I've always worked with kids with disabilities and mental illness. Thank you so much Robin for this amazing gift and for the thought put into it and thank you Nymeth for creating such a wonderful experience!!

I also fit in two Christmas books today! The first was The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon with illustrations by Jill Weber. It's a short read at just 118 pages, but filled with love and joy! Perfect Christmas read. The story's focus is on a nun by the name of Sister Anthony and her dear friend who happens to be a Norway Spruce named "Tree". The head gardener of Rockefeller Center is given the job every year of finding the perfect tree to be the Christmas Tree that we all know so well. While flying in a helicopter searching for it, he spots "Tree" at the convent that Sister Anthony lives at and goes to visit her to ask if he can have the tree for Rockefeller Center. The two form an unlikely friendship as Sister Anthony recounts her past from her troubled childhood through her times as a horticulturist up until now. This was a beautiful story and the story telling actually reminded me quite a bit of The Thirteenth Tale as strange as that may sound. Squeeze this one in if you can before Christmas! I've seen it on bargain shelves at Barnes and Noble.

The other book I read today was Kate DiCamillo's new picture book with Bagram Ibatoulline, the artist who did the paintings for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The book is called Great Joy. It's short and sweet and packs a powerful punch in it's few pages. Leave it to DiCamillo to deliver a touching story like few can. And the paintings are just gorgeous. An organ grinder and his monkey stand on a street corner playing sad music every day for change while young Frances looks down from her lush apartment window wondering where he goes at night. Her mother tells her not to worry about such things, but rather to worry about her line in the Christmas play the next night. But with a child's innocence Frances can't help but worry and wonder about the man and his monkey. Quite a nice little story here.

And of course after Debi and Nymeth's reviews, I had to go out and buy Cornelia Funke's When Santa Fell to Earth! Haven't read that one yet, but I'll get to it before Christmas!

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

So now I'm all caught up with Kate DiCamillo's novels and I have to say that The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is probably my favorite. It's a beautiful story and like all of her books, it's presented beautifully with amazing illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline.

Edward Tulane is a porcelain rabbit doll that was specially commissioned by Abilene Tulane's grandmother. He's a wonderful doll that has real rabbit fur ears, a gold pocket watch and a whole wardrobe of clothes. Edward admires himself and is quite conceited thinking only of himself. He is loved by Abilene but does not reciprocate that love.

When Abilene's family goes on a cruise Edward is tossed overboard and falls to the bottom of the ocean where he experiences his first emotion aside from selfishness - fear. After spending nearly a year on the ocean floor he is swept into the nets of a fisherman which eventually leads him into the unlikely arms of an elderly woman where he begins to learn the emotion of love. From there, Edward continues his miraculous journey, discovering what love is and learning to cherish the meaning and fragility of human relationships.

Another stellar work by DiCamillo! I'm so happy to have this book in my collection. What I love about DiCamillo's work is that they speak to such a wide audience. There's something in each of her books for everyone and I truly enjoyed this one.

Update: Here are a couple of other great reviews of this book. Becky has a very thorough review that I enjoyed reading, and Carl also has a review of this one that I read some time ago that made me instantly want to pick this one up. I'm glad I finally did!

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Well it was no surprise that I enjoyed this little story by Kate DiCamillo. She's become one of my favorite children's authors this year and I'm kind of sad that all I have left to read by her is The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane which is up next. But I have no doubt that she has a long career ahead of her.

Because of Winn-Dixie is a story of friendship. India Opal Buloni has just moved to a new town. Her father is a preacher and while she loves him, she sometimes feels that she's second to his job as "the preacher." Her mother left her and her father at a young age and she doesn't know much about her. She misses her mother and often wonders about her. Suffice it to say that Opal feels quite lonely.

One day Opal goes to the local Winn-Dixie to pick up some groceries for her father and comes across a dog that is causing a raucous in the produce department. When she hears that the produce manager is going to call the pound, she claims the dog as her own. Her father allows her to keep the stray dog who is in need of some care and a beautiful bond forms between Opal and this wonderful dog. Opal begins to meet others in the town through their encounters with Winn-Dixie and she and the dog begin forming bonds and friendships with some wonderful, unlikely friends. Along the way, Opal learns that nearly everyone has ghosts in their pasts; something that they have lost or something that haunts them.

I was so pleased with this book and look forward to finally seeing the movie. I have to admit that I thought the movie looked stupid when I originally saw the previews and I didn't have any desire to see it. But now that I've discovered DiCamillo's writing, I'll most definitely see the movie based on the book. We used to show this movie at the children's psychiatric hospital that I interned at last semester and I can see why. It's a great book, and I'm sure a great movie, for kids who have gone through some kind of loss or troubled time to relate too. DiCamillo is certainly an asset to children's literature.

The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo and Gaiman/Vess News

I've gotta stop reading these tear jerkers! The Tiger Rising was another great book by Kate DiCamillo. I picked this one up after reading The Tale of Despereaux and falling in love with that one. I've become a huge fan of her after reading these two books and can't wait to get my hands on a copy of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

The Tiger Rising centers around a young boy by the name of Rob who keeps his emotions wrapped up inside. His mother has died recently and he and his father have moved from Kentucky to Florida so that his father could escape the heartbreak of losing her. They now live in the Kentucky Star Motel. His father has instilled in Rob that he should not show tears over his mother's death and that he should be strong, so Rob packs all of his emotions away "into a suitcase." He does this in all aspects of his life. He's picked on at school and instead of getting upset, he ignores it. Instead of voicing his dislike of anything, he pretends to not be bothered by it.

There's a new girl in town by the name of Sistine and she has the opposite problem of Henry. She has too much anger and displays it outwardly to everyone and comes off as quite arrogant. In a twist of events, Rob and Sistine become friends.

Rob has made a discovery that there is a tiger being kept in a cage in the woods behind the motel that he and his father are living in and shares this secret with Sistine. Thoughts and emotions are shared between the friends and a wise maid by the name of Willie May who works for the motel.

The Tiger Rising, like Despereaux, faces issues head on. Kate DiCamillo is not afraid to work with strong emotions and when she does address them, she does so beautifully. This book is written wonderfully and can be enjoyed by anyone. It's a story of being trapped in a cage...having all of those emotions locked up inside begging to be let out. I can see it being especially meaningful to a child who has gone through loss of any kind at a young age.

One of my favorite passages in the book:

"I know something that's in a cage," said Rob, pushing the words past the tightness in his throat.

Willie May nodded her head, but she wasn't listening. She was looking past Rob, past the white sheet, past the laundry room, past the Kentucky Star.

"Who don't?" she said finally. "Who don't know something in a cage?"

In other quick news, Charles Vess has announced a collaboration he has been working on for Harper Collins. It is a 32 page children's picture book - A poem by Neil Gaiman called Blueberry Girl. Yay! Doesn't look like we should expect it too soon though, but it does look cool!

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Every now and then I come across a story that just brings a smile across my face, a story that is heart warming and classic. Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux is one of these stories. The complete title is The Tale of Despereaux: Being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread. It's perfectly illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering.

DiCamillo opens her story with the following beautiful passage:

"The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story."

And she proceeds to do so. Despereaux Tilling is the only surving member of his mothers litter. His ears are too big, his body is too small, and he is very un-mouselike. Instead of munching on books, Despereaux would rather read them. He reads a fantasy tale of a night in shining armor who rescues a princess and falls in love and then meets his own princess...and he falls in love with her. But he socializes with her when he is not supposed to and is rejected by the other mice. Meanwhile, we meet a rat who loves the light when he should only love the dark of the dungeons, and we meet a young girl named Miggery Sow who has never been asked what she wants and has been rejected and abused by everyone she has known.

What DiCamillo has given to children and adults alike is a story of overcoming boundaries. This is a powerful book. It is a book of finding strength in times of hopelessness, of finding light when there is only darkness. She doesn't sugar coat the world for her young readers. She admits that there is evil in the world and she acknowledges that open faced. But she offers a beacon of hope to youth who can relate to those characters. She teaches us what empathy is in this book, and paints that picture of seeing a situation from a certain person's viewpoint well.

This was a beautiful book and highly entertaining. I was so happy to read a book that faced issues full force and handled them appropriately. As a counselor, I can see this book being used in a therapeutic way as well, and I'm sure it has been. I look forward to reading more of DiCamillo's work. There was an excerpt from The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane at the end of this book, and I think that may be the next book I read of hers.

This is the first book I read for the Newbery challenge and I agree 100% with the decision to give this book the Newbery award.