The Book of Boy - an audiobook review

The Book of Boy
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Read by Tim Gerard Reynolds
Recorded Books, 2018

Suspend your modern beliefs and enter medieval France in the Jubilee year of 1350.

I recently reviewed The Book of Boy for AudioFile Magazine. (my review is linked here)  I can't reprint my review in its entirety, but I highly recommend this unusual mystical, medieval fantasy which harbors more than one surprise.  With one minor exception (that I address in my review), the narration is stellar.  I assume that the print version is also excellent.  It's received great reviews and has the bonus of being an illustrated novel.

Whether audio or print, I highly recommend that you read this one!

An excerpt from The Book of Boy
A video interview for The Book of Boy with author, Catherine Gilbert Murdock




Other reviews for The Book of Boy

• Kirkus
• BookPage
• Publishers Weekly

Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled all of France - a review

You've heard the term mesmerized before, and you've likely heard of a blind study in medical research (in which study participants are unaware of whether they have been given a treatment or a placebo).  But do you know what these two terms have in common?  Benjamin Franklin!

Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled all of France
Written by Mara Rockliff. Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno. Candlewick, 2015

When Benjamin Franklin arrived in France seeking support for the American cause, Paris was all abuzz about recent advances in science, but one man in particular was drawing much attention - Dr. Franz Mesmer.  Like the invisible gas that was recently proven to buoy giant passenger-carrying balloons when burned, Dr. Mesmer claimed that he, too, had discovered a powerful new invisible force.

Dr. Mesmer said this forced streamed from the stars and flowed into his wand.  When he stared into his patients' eyes and waved the wand, things happened. 

Women swooned.

Men sobbed.

Children fell down in fits.

Mesmer and his practitioners claimed to cure illnesses in this manner, but was is true?  Or was it quackery?  King Louis XVI wanted to know, and Benjamin Franklin was sent to find out.

Mesmerized is one of those wonderful books that combines history with science and humor.  Using the scientific method, Benjamin Franklin was able to deduce that Dr. Mesmer had indeed discovered something, but not the something he had claimed!

Delightfully humorous and informative illustrations, a section on the scientific method (Ooh La La ... La Science!). and a list of source books and articles make Mesmerized a triple-play - science, humor, and history.  Go ahead, be mesmerized!


*This post also appears on the STEM Friday blog today. 

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

See all of today's STEM-related posts at STEM Friday.

Wild Boy - a review

Losure, Mary. 2013. Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.



Found living wild and naked in the mountains of France in 1797, the Savage of Aveyron, or Victor, as he was later called, was treated in turns as  a curiosity, an object of derision, a specimen, an imbecile, a burden.

About ten years old at the time of his discovery and capture, the Savage of Aveyron lived the rest of his life under the scrutiny of other people.  "Doctors" and "scientists" of the time, were a far cry from what they are today and it is fascinating to compare and contrast the state of modern science.  In the same circumstance today, the scientists most likely studying the young boy would be cultural anthropologists, with a focus on learning how the child adapts to his environment, what he eats, how he communicates.  Modern scientists would study him in his own habitat. In France, 1797, however, there is only one main focus - acculturate the boy and teach him to speak French.  No attempt is made to study the boy where he lives; in fact, nothing about his home in the wild is even noted.

Mary Losure has done an excellent job in telling "Victor's" story using period source documents (orphanage rolls, medical journals, correspondence) and accounts written in previous centuries.  There is little or no narrative license taken in this chronological account.  Her description of towns, roads and structures are taken from accounts of the time, and where information is missing, she helpful in filling in the back story, but clear on what is factual and what is speculation.

No one alive today knows the details of what happened next - whether the woodsmen kept a rode around the wild boy's neck or tied his hands behind his back.  No one knows if that night, they took him somewhere to sleep or left him in the square, tied and helpless.  But every day, he was forced to stand, hour after our, for everyone to see. 

And maybe it was then that the wild boy began to hate the staring eyes of crowds.

The boy escapes and is recaptured many times over the years.  He is given to the care of several different scientists, and finds (outside the scientific community), a few people who genuinely care for him.  However, his life is always difficult and sad.  He was known to laugh with glee at the opportunity to enjoy even the coldest of days outdoors, and alternatively, to pine sadly at windows when the moon was full and he was trapped indoors.

Despite spending years in the care of Dr. Itard at the Paris Institute for Deaf-Mutes, and in close proximity to its deaf students, no one ever attempted to teach him to sign.

Dr. Itard had known from the first time he'd met the wild boy that communicating with hand gestures came naturally to him. 

Yet it never seemed to occur to Dr. Itard to try to teach Victor formal sign language.

Dr. Itard himself had never learned it, even though he spent more than thirty years working at a school for deaf children.  Like many people in those days, he did not believe that the formal signing used by deaf people was real language.  He wanted Victor to speak, and to Itard, that meant speaking aloud.

Victor never learned to speak aloud, therefore, the entire decades-long intrusion into the life of Victor, the Savage of Aveyron, was considered a failure by the scientific standards of the time. A strange, sad and true tale that, though featuring a boy without words, speaks volumes about communication and ethnocentrism.  It is the savage, not science, that triumphs in Wild Boy.

Haunting, monochromatic illustrations by Timothy Basil Ering add much to the story.  Endpapers contain maps of the boy's journey, and back matter includes an Author's Note, Source Notes, Bibliography, Index, and Acknowledgments.

Written for a target audience of age ten and up (difficult words are often explained parenthetically), this is a biography that will be of interest to teens and adults as well.

Mary Losure is the author of The Fairy Ring.  Timothy Basil Ering has illustrated many books including Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux.

An interesting note: As a boy, Victor Hugo lived just a few doors away from the adult Victor, and most likely would have seen him loping and gamboling in the garden. 

Some say the hero of Hugo's book The Hunchback of Notre Dame may have been based on the young boy's glimpses of the strange, wild man who roamed the convent gardens and never spoke.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is at Stacking Books.

Minette's Feast - an interview with Chad Beckerman

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Chad Beckerman. He is here in his capacity as Creative Director for Abrams Books for Young Readers, to talk about the newly released Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat, written by Susanna Reich, and illustrated by Amy Bates.

Lisa: Although I did ask to interview the editor of Minette’s Feast, I did not anticipate interviewing the Creative Director for Abrams books.  When I looked you up online, I admit to being more than slightly intimidated by your very impressive resume.  I’m interviewing the art director behind the wildly successful Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Origami Yoda series? Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes? The artistic muse behind Escape! and my new favorite, Huff & Puff?   Be still, my nervous heart.  Please forgive me in advance for my lack of knowledge in your area of expertise and allow me to quote one of my favorite lines from Mary Rose Woods', The Mysterious Howling, "all books are judged by their covers until they are read."

So, on we go …

Chad: Wow, you really have done your Designer research!  I am the evil design mastermind behind all of those books!

Lisa: Minette’s Feast– a superbly written narrative by Susanna Reich paired with the pencil and watercolor paintings of Amy Bates that exude the aura (and aroma!) of a 1950s French kitchen.   Was it you who brought these two talents together?  How do you choose an illustrator for a manuscript?  Was there ever a case where you’ve found artwork that sent you in search of a writer?

Chad: Tamar Brazis, editorial director, and I had worked with Amy Bates on two other picture books, The Dog who Belonged to No One and A Bear in the Air. We had been on the search for a picture book for Amy. When Susanna's Minette's Feast came across Tamar's desk, we knew without question this was a book for Amy. In most cases we have a manuscript and will search for just the right illustrator. Thankfully we had Amy stowed away for a rainy day.

Lisa: I understand that you have designed all of Amy Bates’ books for Abrams. You must be quite familiar with her and her work.  Does that make your job easier?

Chad: Being familiar with an illustrator's work definitely makes an art director's job easier. You know what their strengths and weaknesses are. You know where and when to push them to get better work from them. In the case of working with Amy, our first book we worked on together was The Dog who Belonged to No One. I had seen Amy's work on a few other pictures from our houses so I had an idea of what she could do. I wanted to make the books that she did with ABRAMS different than her other work. To solve that idea, we pushed Amy into creating designs and patterns that fit the content of the story; in turn giving the viewer more to look at than just full bleed or spot illustrations.  These border designs helped bring you into the time period of the story.

Lisa: Your job is to create an overall  “vision” for the book, to give it a particular “feel,” how do you affect that vision?  Within the pages of the book itself, is it primarily a matter of space and placement, typeface and font,  or is there more that you can do to achieve a particular effect? 

Chad: The first way a designer helps create his or her vision on the book is through his font choice. I feel this helps set the mood or time period for the story. Designers need to ask themselves, is this book wacky and deserves a more fun take on the typography, or does the typography need to be played down to let the art be the main star? Is this an historical book where a typeface from that time period or region might be the best choice?  This is the question I asked myself for Minette's Feast. I searched mainly for fonts that said "Paris" to me. This choice helped set the stage of where the story takes place, perhaps hinting at the atmosphere of the text.


The second way a designer or an editor helps create a vision for a particular book is working with the illustrator to shape the look of the book. For example we spent a lot of time working with Amy getting a few spreads to work exactly right.

As you can see we had to reshape the sketches so they worked better with the text and told the story better.

Lisa: How involved are you in the early sketches or color studies?  I saw the many transformations that occurred in the making of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes.  How do artists feel about going “back to the drawing board" for so many iterations? Are most cooperative?

Chad: I am very involved in the early stages. In a cover like Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, I had a idea of what I wanted the cover to be before hiring Gilbert Ford; but I also knew it might not be the right idea so I wanted to see what ideas Gilbert had.  This was definitely a long process - one that Gilbert stuck by me with.  No one likes to have to go "back to the drawing board." It helps to be very transparent about what is going on. Artists are not in the office with you; they don't hear the reasons why a cover or illustration is not working for someone. Not being part of that process can be hard since an illustrator can feel on the outside of the process. It's my job to make sure they don't feel that way.

Minette sketches

Julia sketches

Lisa: Why choose different artwork for the book’s cover and its dust jacket?  I love them both, but I am curious. Don’t picture books usually have the same cover art and dust jacket?

Chad: I find that you are correct that picture books tend to have the same case as the front jacket image. I find this a bit lazy from the designer's point of view. I say this because I am guilty of just placing the cover on the case as well. More and more, I find that designing the case with new art offers up a little something extra to help the book feel more special.

Lisa: Were the endpapers your idea?  I love the tablecloth motif.

Chad: Amy had made the end paper art for the copyright spread, I believe. The art that is now on the copyright spread was originally intended as the cover illustration. During the process of working out the pagination of the text/illustrations, we moved the tablecloth pattern to the end papers. It was just too good not to use.


Lisa: What do you feel is your greatest contribution to Minette’s Feast?

Chad: My greatest contribution is working alongside Tamar Brazis. Our teamwork is an accomplishment. We sit down, go over the sketches, and shoot ideas off each other, helping the book to grow into what it wants to be. This relationship adds to the quality of our books and Minette's Feast. But, if you are asking what is my favorite part of the book, I am quite fond of the case and endpapers, but you have already pointed those out.


Lisa: Finally, I’m curious – are those “brass knuckles” on your coffee cup?

Chad: Those are indeed brass knuckles attached to, yes, my coffee cup. Oddly, there has never been any coffee in that cup.

Lisa: Thanks so much! I've truly learned a great deal - about Julia Child, of course, and about picture books in general.  Until this interview, I never gave much thought to the art director's contribution, being more of a wordsmith than an artist, myself.  Writer, artist, editor and art director - together you've created a delicious offering in Minette's Feast,

Ooh-la-la! Magnifique!

The blog tour wraps up tomorrow at Readerkidz.

Today's Nonfiction Monday roundup is at The Swimmer Writer.

An Interview with Leland Purvis

 The Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour, sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries, kicks off today!  One of the Honor Award Winners for Older Readers is Resistance by Carla Jablonski with art by Leland Purvis (First Second, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)

Today I'm pleased to be interviewing the artist, Leland Purvis. 

Congratulations on your Sydney Taylor Honor Award for the artwork in Resistance, and thanks so much for participating in the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour. 

SE: I’m always curious about the manner in which great books are created. In  graphic novels and nonfiction, is the story generally written in its entirety before the artwork is conceived, is it a collaborative effort, or something completely different?

LP: Not all graphic novels are made the same way. In the case where the writer and artist are different people, often the working method grows out of the creators themselves, and the skills they bring to the table. In this case Carla did a full script but (unusual in comics) no panel-by-panel descriptions. The page design, shot-choices, and character design were all on me. Also, Carla had never done comics before. There are peculiarities of visual storytelling unique to the medium. Carla was very collaborative when occasions arose where I thought things needed changing for clarity, and really open to suggestions of solutions, which made it very satisfying. 

 

SE:  In Resistance, you often use Paul’s sketchbook to portray people or events  in the story. I found it interesting that, in most cases, Paul’s sketchbook depicts events not through the filtered eye of the young boy, but as they are. In my mind, that tells a story in itself - that the behavior of Nazi  Germany was so horrific that exaggeration, even for an imaginative young boy, is impossible. Was that the point that you were trying to make, or does the sketchbook have another purpose in the story?

LP: The sketchbook serves a couple of purposes, which is why you were sensing a dual-role, essentially. On the one hand it was a narrative device by which Paul could be valuable to the Maquis resistance in a credible way. Also it does provide a look into Paul's head about his reaction to the town and people around him. We very much included panels that were strictly Paul's P.O.V. This has continued into the sequels.


Copyright 2010 Leland Purvis and Carla Jablonski



P.O.V. shots can alter perspective and focus without necessitating exaggeration. Horror exaggerates itself. In this case, though, most of those scenes that really depict some of that were not so much in the sketchbook as they were shown from overheard conversations, or witnessed by the characters themselves. I think it was best to give the emotional landscape through the eyes of the children in the story. Otherwise, as horrific as we might have displayed a context, the readers wouldn't have related as fully. Carla did a wonderful job with that and it made my work much more engaging. 





SE: Your Blogger profile states that you’re from Brooklyn, but I read an earlier interview in which you hailed from Portland, Oregon . Two drastically different cities - one brooding (no offense, NY) and one earnest (ditto, Portland); where are you now, and are you happy there?



LP: I've fixed that now! It's funny that you see these cities as so different. In fact Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn, NY are sister-cities in a lot of respects. I know quite a few people who have lived in both places. There's a lot of do-it-yourself creative energy, artists, writers, bicycle riders, musicians, a really vibrant cultural life going on in each. Brooklyn is more diverse, Portland less stressed, but there are many similarities. And there are more comics-artists in Portland than anywhere but Brooklyn. After six years there (sixteen for my wife) we moved to my hometown of Portland last Summer.

 

SE: Based on Vox, Suspended in Language, Resistance and other projects on which you’ve chosen to work, I take it that you are a very serious thinker. But then, there’s Pubo. So, I’m puzzled... is your stated interest in “fighting entropy to soften the dreams of reason,” lighthearted or serious? Do you care to elaborate?



LP: Art, or making anything, really, is an 'organizating' that soothes the mind and offers some defense against the slings and arrows. So in that sense it's serious. But if you're going to take your work seriously, I think it's important to not take your Self too seriously. It's never out of place to lighten up a little. PUBO, while on the surface looks like just a funny-animal comic, does yield more to a closer read. It has some things to say, or at least questions to ask, about trust, fear and survival, what it's okay to do to our fellow Man, and how there is a distinction between that and what's allowed in the natural world. At least I hope it does. I meant it to. The first idea with PUBO being that a character who is a physical map of how we feel, would be a metaphor all by himself.

 

SE: And finally, what’s next?

LP: Next I'll be finishing up the three-book Resistance series. So there's more to hear from Paul and Marie and their little town. After that, I'll be stepping out of YA but continuing with historical work with writer Jim Ottaviani on a book called The Imitation Game, a biography of Alan Turing the British WWII codebreaker.

 

Many thanks to Leland Purvis for his time and thoughtful answers,

and to the Association of Jewish Libraries for sponsoring this tour. 



The Death-Defying Pepper Roux

Mccaughrean, Geraldine. 2010. The Death-Defying Pepper Roux. New York: Harper Collins.

Like all of us, Paul Roux is born to die, however, unlike most people, Paul Roux knows when he will die - on his fourteenth birthday.  Upon his birth, Paul's Aunt Mireille receives a message from Saint Constance.  Pepper will die at fourteen.  So, while other children are attending school, making friends, and preparing for adulthood, the young Paul is attending Mass, making daily penance and preparing for  Last Rites.  His resigned mother, Madame Roux, so often refers to him as "mon pauvre" my poor thing, that local children mistake his name for "poivre," or Pepper.  All of this is accepted, of course.  Saint Constance decreed it to be so.  Aunt Mireille reminds them so. It must be so.

But on his fourteenth birthday, Pepper suddenly realizes that he doesn't feel like going to his eternal rest. The saints will be looking for him.  But suppose they can't find Pepper Roux?

After all, "People see what they expect to see.  Don't they?"

Captain Roux? Yes, I am Captain Roux.
Here is a placard.  Yes, I am a protestor.
Do you work here? Yes, I am the meat slicer.
You've worked for a newspaper? Yes, I am Pepper Papier.
You are a delivery boy?  Yes, I am Konstantin Kruppe.
Good day, dear.  I am home.

And so, the doomed Pepper steps from one life into another, and another, and another.  And though Saint Constance is seeking to harvest him, Pepper's quick-thinking and earnestness keep him one step ahead of his judgement day.

The Death-Defying Pepper Roux is an exciting tale of adventure; some of the lives into which Pepper deposits himself are less than savory ones!  But Pepper is never dispirited, never bitter; and his various predicaments are often humorously improbable - he is by turns a grizzled sea captain, a grocer's boy, a reporter, a fugitive on the run, a hard-drinking husband, a soldier in the French Foreign Legion - all before his 15th birthday!

The Death-Defying Pepper Roux is also, improbably, a deep philosophical novel about faith, family, honesty, destiny and friendship.  Pepper's unlikely friend Duchesse, is a funny and colorful addition to the story - a strong and seaworthy steward, taken to dispensing valuable advice and wearing women's clothing.

A rousing and rollicking read that should be popular with kids and teens.  A book that begs to be read twice.  Move over Despereaux, here comes another French hero who will win reader's hearts!

Come Fly With Me

Ichikawa, Satomi. 2008. 2008. Come Fly with Me. New York: Philomel.

This is the story of a stuffed dog and a wooden plane that decide to take flight from their balcony to go "Somewhere." Woggy and Cosmos travel through the skies, encountering birds, clouds and rain on their way to the "White Dome" that they can view in the distance.

The paintings of Paris are beautiful and the expressions of Woggy, the doggy, are particularly endearing, but the story was not engaging. Although the illustrations of Paris are beautiful, particularly the view from Montmartre of a rainbow over the Eiffel Tower, it is disappointing that the reader is never aware that the story takes place in France. Only the distant Eiffel Tower in the story's conclusion offers a clue. Even the author's note makes no mention of the "White Dome", Montmartre, or its significance in Parisian history - a pity.

The story line is perhaps a bit too simple, " A magnificent city and a beautiful rainbow!' says Cosmos. 'What a surprise.' "The best part of going Somewhere,' says Woggy, 'is surprise.' 'No, no,' says Cosmos. 'The best part of going Somewhere is sharing it with friends.'

Use this title for its beautiful illustrations or for use in a themed storytime about planes or France. For a great storyline, choose another book.