2book multi

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Delight, whimsy and function in decor

Feature by Eliza Borné

You don’t have to go to art school or commission a designer to have a beautiful home—but a tasteful design book will provide you with plenty of inspiration. In these four books, you’ll learn to mix high and low interiors and incorporate plenty of bright color. Filled with gorgeous photographs, design books make lovely gifts for a loved one or yourself, and will be at home on any coffee table for years to come.

NEUTRAL IS OUT
Katie Ridder founded her design firm in 1995 and has since become known for her bright color palette and international influence. Take one look at the mesmerizing pictures in Katie Ridder Rooms, and you’ll soon see why: These interiors are truly works of art, at once sunny and bright, extravagant and balanced. In her introduction, author Heather Smith MacIsaac explains what makes Ridder’s rooms special: “No matter how lavish a project, no matter its style and degree of sophistication, it remains accessible, family friendly, absolutely inviting, and subtly practical.” Though not everyone can spring for custom wallpaper or a custom sofa to fit the shape of a space, we can all project relaxed hospitality in clutter-free rooms. There are many tips here that will be of use to any DIY home decorator, like lining the backs of bookcases with beautiful paper, or painting a dining room in a dramatic color to transform it “from the runt of the litter into best in show.” (MacIsaac rightly notes that dining rooms are typically only used and “dressed up” for special occasions.) After reading this book, you’ll be itching to add drama and flair to your house with sari-like curtains or Chinese lanterns, an upholstered headboard in the bedroom and bold wallpaper in the bathroom—anything that ups the wow factor and, as Ridder says, the “delight factor.”

STYLE AS SWEET AS PIE
Even if you live above the Mason-Dixon Line, like your tea unsweet and would never say “y’all,” you can still find plenty of inspiration in Southern Living Style. The Southerners among us—bless their hearts—will joyfully take pride in their region’s many fabulous interiors. This inviting guide is divided by room, with additional sections on “Defining Southern Style” and before-and-afters. So what is Southern style? It can be modern or traditional, but a proper Southern-inspired room should include some sort of ancestral influence—whether a portrait of Grandmother, a chest passed down for generations or cherished monogrammed family linens. A Southern home will also invite entertaining, comfortably mix functionality with formality and not shy away from color. Alongside pretty pictures of rooms, in this book you’ll find tips from decorators on getting the looks for yourself, with advice for both major re-dos and budget-friendly updates. One of the handiest features is the “pulling it all together” pages, which explain how to assemble the players in each room, from the most essential furniture pieces to fun accessories that make the space your own.

DECOR FROM THE BIG EASY
Bryan Batt may be best known for his role as art director Sal Romano on AMC’s hit show “Mad Men,” but Big, Easy Style joyfully celebrates his passion for design and decor. Batt was born and raised in New Orleans, and his philosophy in both life and design is laissez les bons temps rouler—“let the good times roll.” Readers are encouraged to embrace color, follow their hearts when making design choices and not be afraid of making mistakes. Based on the photographs of Batt’s Crescent City carriage house, it is clear that he has plenty of fun with his own design choices, like hanging huge papier-mâché flowers on the wall in homage to Mardi Gras floats. A helpful feature of Big, Easy Style is Batt’s list of favorite colors; with names like Petticoat White, Chocolate Mousse and Blue Hydrangea, you’ll be eager to start picking out paint chips. Fans of “Mad Men” will appreciate the glimpses into Batt’s childhood and personal life—his family owned the beloved Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park—and anyone with a space to decorate will be energized by his helpful, happy advice, like to work toward synergy between “a home’s great style and its owner’s personal flair.” They’ll also want to make a jaunt to New Orleans, where Batt and his partner, Tom Cianfichi, have owned a home accessories boutique, Hazelnut, since 2003.

A HOUSE FIT FOR A BIBLIOPHILE
Since everyone at BookPage is a booklover, most of us have the same problem: where to stash all the evidence of our addiction. Damian Thompson turns book accumulation into an art form in Books Make a Home, a dream of a guide for any devoted reader. Learn how to store your books more effectively (so you’ll have room to buy more!); how to arrange your books in artful displays; how to organize your collection; and even how to care for your books. (Rule number one: Do not allow them to lean!) Are you cohabitating for the first time and need a solution for combining two libraries? Having guests come to stay and want advice on how to thoughtfully provide reading material? You’ll find plenty of ideas here. Not surprisingly, the stars of the stunning photographs in Books Make a Home are books—stored in sleek kitchens, cozy bedrooms, corridors, office nooks, living rooms and even “loos” (Thompson lives in East London). In a chapter about arranging books in children’s rooms, the author quotes education reformer Horace Mann, writing: “A house without books is like a room without windows.” Any bibliophile would surely agree, and Thompson’s book provides show-stopping ideas for what to do with your beloved tomes.

You don’t have to go to art school or commission a designer to have a beautiful home—but a tasteful design book will provide you with plenty of inspiration. In these four books, you’ll learn to mix high and low interiors and incorporate plenty of bright…

Food & DrinkCookbooks

Delicious and drinkable delights

Feature by Eve Zibart

New wine books used to be a holiday staple, but these days, wine talk has been replaced by sophisticated (and occasionally cultish) culinary chat, haute beer debates and retro cocktail repartee–all easily indulged tastes when it comes to your gift list.

TOUR THE TABLE
Though playful in tone, and packed with the wordplay that (among other critical tropes) he both tweaks and enjoys, Adam Gopnik’s The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food is no mere “The Man Who Ate Everything and Then Considered It Philosophically.” It is more a sort of literate confessional, a series of meditations on cooking and, inevitably, consuming. Locavores, carnivores, gourmets and gourmands, historians, commentators, chefs and cooks all have their say, alongside Gopnik’s epigrammatic musings. What distinguishes dining from eating? What is morality (i.e., “who” or what should we eat) and is indulgence a sin? What is taste, the importance of the table or the value of tradition? And how did the restaurant, a relatively modern invention—created in Paris, just before the Revolution—become not simply a cultural icon but a kind of cult?

Much of The Table Comes First originated as pieces for The New Yorker, where Gopnik has glittered for a quarter-century, so this is a feast best consumed in discrete courses. Gopnick’s encounters with London snout-to-tail maven Fergus Henderson and the great Catalonian innovators behind elBulli, Ferran and Albert Adrià, are fascinating; his quixotic mission to prepare an entirely locavore, only-in-New York dinner is unexpectedly funny. His comments on food and wine critics are at once acute and sympathetic. And, of course, the writing is a pleasure (“the chastened, improved look of the egg yolks mixed with sugar”).

FRENCH FEAST
If Gopnik’s book is the menu de degustation, Balzac’s Omelette: A Delicious Tour of French Food and Culture with Honoré de Balzac is a lovely trifle. Written by the Paris-born, New York-based biographer Anka Muhlstein, and translated from French by Adriana Hunter, it uses quotations from the writer deemed a French Trollope (a pun he would have enjoyed) to portray a city and culture evolving alongside the restaurant. (Muhlstein and Gopnik disagree on a few facts, but they have historical sentiment in common.) Balzac’s characters eat in real-life cafes or in private homes, and the provenance of the fare, as well as its quality, reflect the new egalité (or not). The book’s French title is “Garçon, un cent d’huitres” (Waiter, a hundred oysters”); though Balzac ate almost nothing while working, between novels he could have given Diamond Jim Brady a run for his bivalves. Lovers of France, food and literature will find this a welcome gift.

IN SEARCH OF SUDS
The Great American Ale Trail: The Craft Beer Lover’s Guide to the Best Watering Holes in the Nation, by Christian DeBenedetti, is an exuberant, if arbitrary, “Route 66” of a jaunt through brewpubs and craft breweries. It is also a series of snapshots of brewers (including the famously unruly and charming Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head) and worthy but beer-less landmarks (New Orleans’ Central Grocery of muffaletta fame)—a sort of beerlover’s verbal Viewmaster. There are detours into history, regulatory scuffles, brewpubs lost and found and more. The descriptions of various brews are almost amorously tasty, and will doubtless inspire lovers of microbrews to add some names to their “must try” lists.

CHEERS TO COCKTAIL HOUR
Brian D. Murphy’s See Mix Drink: A Refreshingly Simple Guide to Crafting the World’s Most Popular Cocktails is a Mr. Boston’s for beginners that looks like the prototype for a smartphone app. Each recipe is loaded with “intuitive icons” (shapes of the bottles, implements, garnishes and glasses required) that act out the drink-making process, plus an illustration of the glass filled with proportional layers of ingredients (see illustration). The additional pie charts—a Black Velvet clearly illustrated as three ounces of stout and three ounces of Champagne in a flute is also displayed as a 50% brown, 50% tan circle—have the virtue of displaying a calorie count, 96 in this case. While most of the ­recipes are classic, some are perhaps more “app-propos.” His rendition of a Ramos Gin Fizz uses egg white powder and makes no mention of orange flower water, its characteristic flavoring. And while Murphy feels the need to explain what a blender does, he doesn’t define many of the additional ingredients, such as orgeat syrup or orange bitters, that may be less familiar to newbies. Still, the lively presentation is likely to help wean the junior “Mad Men” off chocolate martinis—a worthy cause.

New wine books used to be a holiday staple, but these days, wine talk has been replaced by sophisticated (and occasionally cultish) culinary chat, haute beer debates and retro cocktail repartee--all easily indulged tastes when it comes to your gift list.

TOUR THE TABLE
Though playful…

NonfictionMilitary HistoryBlack HistoryAmerican History

Humanity at its most inventive and savage

Feature by Edward Morris

It is an open question whether history as it comes down to us, with all its political and psychological overlays, has something useful to teach us about our own affairs. What is not in dispute about history, though, is its power to entertain and inspire us with its myths and stories. In this regard, the four annals considered here are all enormously satisfying and thought-provoking—maybe even instructive.

MAKING HISTORY BY HAND
As director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor had only to look around him to find the exemplary artifacts he discusses in A History of the World in 100 Objects. The oldest is a stone chopping tool discovered in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and estimated to be between 1.8 and 2 million years old, while the newest is a solar-powered light and charger made in China in 2010. Each object is illustrated in color and explained by MacGregor in essays that manage to be both scholarly and conversational in tone. Embedded within certain of these essays are additional wise commentaries from the likes of David Attenborough, Martin Amis, Yo Yo Ma, Karen Armstrong and Seamus Heaney.

Not surprisingly, most of the objects cited are from the large civilization centers of Europe, Africa and Asia. But there are also ones from less bustling locations: a Clovis spear point from Arizona, a pestle from New Guinea, a textile fragment from Peru, a bark shield from Australia. The choices here will no doubt spur arguments about significance (was the Hawaiian feather helmet really symbolic of human development?), omissions (where is the can of Spam? the Swiss pocket knife?) and political correctness (is the Suffragette-defaced penny anything more than an oddity?). But, then, isn’t raising issues the best part of reading histories?

WHEN IN ROME
The congenitally combative art critic Robert Hughes began his long love affair with Rome on his first visit there in 1959. In Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History, he undertakes the gargantuan task of chronicling more than 3,000 years of myths, battles, political intrigues, religious upheavals and, most dear to him, art in its infinite manifestations. He begins his account in the mists of prehistory and carries it forward to what he sees as Rome’s present condition—a pestilential tourist beehive in which art is viewed and checked off one’s list rather than savored.

No figure is too transient, no artifact too trivial and no political movement too bizarre to merit Hughes’ attention as he strides those city streets through the ages. His descriptions are sharp and vivid. Of the battle at Cannae between the Carthaginian Hannibal’s troops and Roman soldiers, he writes, “Roman losses in a single day at Cannae were almost as great as American combat losses (58,000) in the Vietnam War. And it all happened within about nine hours on a late-spring or early-summer day, blindingly hot, fogged with the clouds of dust kicked up by thousands of men in their relentless, terminal struggle.”

Although his prose often has a working man’s swagger to it, Hughes can become lyrical given the right stimulus. Recalling the Church of Santa Maria della Consolazione in nearby Umbria, he says, “There is no town around it; it simply emerges from the earth, flooded with light inside. No mosaics, no statuary, no gilt, no marble: only strong, ideal geometrical form. To have such an interior to oneself, in the light of a spring morning, is to grasp a fleeting sense of what Dante meant—‘luce, intellettual, piena d’amore’: the light of the mind, suffused with love.”

SEEING THE CIVIL WAR ANEW
Margaret E. Wagner’s The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War is a real factual and pictorial treasure. Illustrated by more than 350 photographs, drawings, editorial cartoons, maps, handbills and manuscript reproductions (many in color), the book begins on February 4, 1861, when representatives from six secessionist states meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a Confederate government, and ends on May 29, 1865, when newly elevated President Andrew Johnson grants amnesties or pardons to most of those who rebelled against the Union.

All the entries are brief, so the accounts of skirmishes and battles are necessarily summaries. But the length is perfect for anecdotes that reveal the human side of the war, such as this one from October 15, 1863: “Inventor H. L. Hunley is among eight men who die when the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sinks (for the second time; see August 29, 1863) during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor.” Or take this missive for February 10, 1864: “When flames are spotted at the president’s stables near the White House, Abraham Lincoln dashes outside, leaping over an intervening boxwood hedge ‘like a deer’ . . . and ‘with his own hands burst open the stable door.’ ” Lincoln was restrained from entering the building, and the fire killed six horses, including one that had belonged to his deceased son.

The book’s illustrations are large, fully captioned and powerfully narrative in their own right. Among the curiosities depicted are a drawing from a surgery manual showing how to amputate a leg; a printed envelope bearing the likeness of Lincoln’s reluctant general, George B. McClellan, and identifying him as “The Bag of Wind”; and a letter written by Jefferson Davis’ secretary with lines running both across and up and down the page to save precious paper. It is hard to imagine a more accessible survey of the Civil War than this one.

500 YEARS OF BLACK HISTORY
Strange as it may seem now, as recently as 50 years ago, textbooks on American history barely touched on the contributions of African Americans. Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s stirring collection, Life Upon These Shores, is a chronicle of important figures and events that were long overlooked, forgotten or ignored. He begins in 1513, when Vasco Núñez de Balboa first sighted the Pacific Ocean at the Isthmus of Panama, with 30 Africans among his party. Just over 100 years later, in 1619, the first shipment of slaves to America arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. The terminus of Gates’ survey, naturally enough, is the election of America’s first black president.

Illustrated with more than 750 drawings, paintings and photographs, the book offers little historical vignettes much like those in an encyclopedia, except that these entries are in chronological rather than alphabetical order. The recurring themes—as Gates presents them in his measured, conversational tone—are resistance, persistence, imagination, self-help and thwarted attempts at assimilation.

Perhaps because it has been so minutely anatomized elsewhere, Gates devotes only a few pages to the Civil War proper, concentrating instead on events leading up to the war and the devastating Reconstruction period that followed. In the modern era, he pays much attention to the influence of African Americans on the arts and popular culture—from Duke Ellington and Richard Wright to Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee and Oprah Winfrey. He also illuminates political conflicts within the African-American community via snapshots of such volatile figures as Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Louis Farrakhan and Clarence Thomas, and summarizes the achievements of African Americans in municipal, state and national politics. One may quibble with his omissions, but Gates’ task here is truly Herculean, and he has handled it superbly.

It is an open question whether history as it comes down to us, with all its political and psychological overlays, has something useful to teach us about our own affairs. What is not in dispute about history, though, is its power to entertain and inspire…

MusicMemoir

Tuneful bios strike the right note

Feature by W.S. Lyon

This year brings thoughtful looks back at the careers of legendary musicians, whose public lives and stirring songs have moved listeners from the 1940s to the instantaneous now.

ALTERNATIVE VIEW
Pearl Jam Twenty is a book to get lost in, the kind to open slowly, a book that draws you in by its feel, its heft, its outward austerity. Like liner notes, it at once celebrates the band’s cool and invites you to find in them some piece of yourself—the conversations scrawled on concert tickets, the set lists smoothed out after having been balled up and cast aside, the image of 50,000 arms raised in the air. The message is clear: We can’t believe we created all this, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Twenty is a fan book, both a companion piece for and a thing apart from the Cameron Crowe documentary of the same name. Crowe sets the tone with an adoring and personal introduction to the book: Defying the stereotypes of self-destructive American rock bands, Pearl Jam has managed to stay true to their own creative process with a “clear-eyed spirit that comes from believing in people and music and its power to change.” Through snippets of interviews and conversations that span more than two decades, Twenty is a nearly week-by-week account of the band’s triumphs, failures and history-making success.

STILL MY GUITAR
As a boy, George Harrison was bad in school and curious about guitars. In Hamburg, Harrison transformed from a boy into a man and, with his mates, into the most beloved musical act of all time. As a Beatle, he marveled at the mania circling his life, often turning a skilled and curious lens back at those swirling hordes. Eventually, his curiosity would again transform him, this time sending him Eastward and inward toward the mysticism of LSD and Hindu spirituality. Later, out of pure interest, he would go on to bankroll Monty Python’s Life of Brian and sponsor a young Formula One champion.

An ode to “the quiet Beatle,” George Harrison: Living in the Material World is linear and chronological. Its author, Harrison’s widow Olivia Harrison, shies away from direct personal commentary. Despite the near lack of point of view, the images themselves tell a story of two Georges: the public and the spiritual, the wry and the despondent. It’s a striking companion piece to the recent Martin Scorsese documentary of the same name that aired on HBO.

The two most powerful images in the book were taken by Harrison himself. One is of a cadre of faceless photographers shooting away at him from beneath the giant, menacing blade of an airplane propeller, an unbroken ring of onlookers gawking from the sidelines of the landing strip. The other is a self-portrait in the mirror, years later, of a hollow, bearded face holding a ball of pure light and ringed, Christ-like, by the reflected aura of the flash.

With 260 images and hundreds more diary clippings, quotes and reminiscences from his famous friends, Living in the Material World exposes Harrison in a manner true to his legacy: richly, with quiet steps, into an open-ended finish.

DAYLIGHT COME
Harry Belafonte’s My Song: A Memoir is a surprising, captivating portrait of the plucky singer and actor. From an impoverished boyhood with his stern Jamaican mother, to the showbiz break given him by jazz legends Charlie Parker and Max Roach, to his integral role in the nonviolent civil rights movement, and on to his continued passions as an entertainer and activist in Africa and around the world, this is an American life sustained by humanity and well worth its weight in words.

Co-author Michael Shnayerson writes deftly and with great power in a highly readable style. The story never flies too high, grounding itself in the humble past each time it nears soaring. This plays well for Belafonte, who comes across as entirely genuine. He’s equally frank when sharing the stories of his counsel with civil rights leaders, his friendship with Sidney Poitier and his mischievous pursuits of the women in his life. But the book focuses on Belafonte’s lifelong fight against injustice, a fight he continues today. After all, “Banana Boat Song” might sound like a romp, but day-o! is the cry of an abused working class.

BIRD ON THE WIRE
Part memoir of a lifelong struggle with alcohol, part litany of names, places and events associated with the folk movement of the 1960s, Judy Collins’ Sweet Judy Blue Eyes is on all counts a ballad in a familiar key. Collins is famous for her crystal-clear voice and weepy eyes, and for transfiguring the songs of others. Here, she sings in her own words, telling her own tale. But her deep connection to her father, who passed on to her the gift of music and the curse of booze, is sweetly recounted, and the struggles behind the music are told with a light touch. Collins has a remarkable set of memories to share, a view from the inside of America’s most legendary musical moment—Baez, Dylan, Stills, Cohen—and she paints it vividly with a sharp if occasionally odd sense of detail.

This year brings thoughtful looks back at the careers of legendary musicians, whose public lives and stirring songs have moved listeners from the 1940s to the instantaneous now.

ALTERNATIVE VIEW
Pearl Jam Twenty is a book to get lost in, the kind to open slowly, a…

NonfictionPop CultureArtAmerican History

Great gifts that run the gamut

Feature by Alice Cary

Are you trying to tackle a towering gift list? Never fear! No matter who you’re shopping for, the right book is waiting.

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY
As an elementary school student, I had the good fortune to be part of a private White House Christmas tour led by my classmate’s aunt, who was First Lady Pat Nixon’s press secretary. Decades later, I continue to be fascinated by the White House, and The White House: The President’s Home in Photographs and History is indeed a mesmerizing tour, boasting 278 photographs along with a highly readable, informative text by photography critic Vicki Goldberg.

Here’s a sampling of the intriguing photos within these pages: a biplane about to land on the White House lawn in 1911, flown by a student of the Wright brothers; smoke billowing out of the White House during a 1929 Christmas Eve fire that erupted as President Hoover and his wife hosted a party for the children of their staff; a press secretary in 1957 using office equipment that was crammed inside a bathroom; Betty Ford dancing barefoot on top of the Cabinet Room table; Caroline Kennedy visiting President Obama in the Oval Office as they inspect the desk that her father once used.

There’s something interesting on every page of this comprehensive photographic journey.

PILGRIMAGE TO SAN DIEGO
Perhaps, like me, you’ve heard about Comic-Con for years and wondered what it’s all about. Here’s an insider’s look at the “world’s largest pop-culture event,” in the form of both a new documentary and this companion book by Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock, Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope.

Think of this convention as Halloween on steroids, as adults, families, geeks, comic creators and fans dress up as their favorite super­heroes and comic characters and meet and mingle, all gloriously captured in living color by photographer Alba Tull. Also present are legends and pioneers of the business, such as Stan Lee (the comic book creator of Spider-Man), Iron Man, Thor and other superheroes.

Leafing through this colorful portrait gallery is like wandering through the convention floor and having a quick chat with the fans. Why do they come? What do they love? What do they talk about? “Battlestar Galactica” actor Richard Hatch sums up Comic-Con like this: “People want to come and feel part of something—feel connected to the greater world and be part of this magical industry that has kind of been a savior, I think, for a lot of people’s lives.”

WORLD’S BEST AND WEIRDEST
The RecordSetter Book of World Records is the sort of book that my three teen and almost-teen children are bound to devour. Authors Corey Henderson and Dan Rollman founded their own website (RecordSetter.com) in 2008 after finding the submission process for the Guinness Book of World Records both limiting and overly daunting. Their website’s goal is to invent, beat and discuss world records, and the founders’ philosophy is that “everyone on earth can be the world’s best at something.”

The website itself is fun, creative and inclusive, as is this book, which features records, interviews and tips for setting and beating new records. There’s no end to the inventive feats celebrated, such as: fastest time to open a bag of Skittles and sort them by color (21.5 seconds); most KISS songs named in one minute (45); largest group to sit on balloons and pop them at once (117 people); and most text messages sent and received in a single month (200,052)—a record set by a 19-year-old who, not surprisingly, developed blisters on his thumbs.

Let’s just say that this book is the perfect party gift!

MINDING YOUR P’S AND Q’S
Move over, Ann Landers and Dear Abby. As Philip Galanes explains, his popular New York Times column is “Not Your Mummy’s Advice Column.” He’s collected many of the outrageous questions he’s received and answered in Social Q’s: How To Survive the Quirks, Quandaries and Quagmires of Today.

The book is arranged into chapters addressing dilemmas related to social situations, public transportation, work, romance, family and money matters, all with wonderful titles such as “Step Away from That Keyboard! E-mails, Texts, and the Three Commandments for E-Living.” With the holidays soon to be here, you’ll learn whether you have to keep shelling out gifts to teenaged relatives who never bother to thank you for them. “Move on,” Galanes advises. Is it okay to approach a fellow commuter on whom you have developed a crush? He tells this questioner, “It’s a free country, Brooke. So long as you keep your clothes on.” (He adds a few cautionary notes, however).

Galanes dishes out reasonable, well thought-out answers to these questions and more. This book is a fun romp through other people’s problems, regardless of whether you face them yourself.

PATRIOTIC PAINTINGS
On a more nostalgic note, here’s a lovely compendium for anyone who’s a fan of Norman Rockwell, American history, literature and music. Included in Norman Rockwell’s Spirit of America are 100 color and 50 black-and-white illustrations painted by Rockwell, as well as eight color plates that are separate, ready-to-frame prints. The inspiring paintings are accompanied by excerpts from songs, stories, speeches and more from our nation’s history.

These glimpses into our country’s past are great fun to peruse, and an excellent education for younger readers, who can take a look at an old-fashioned voting booth, a drugstore soda counter, a stern schoolmaster and a crooning barbershop quartet. The literary excerpts feature plenty of well-known names, such as Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Laura Ingalls Wilder and O. Henry. Cuddle up with this collection on a cold winter’s night, and you’re bound to stumble upon some hidden gems, such as Ogden Nash’s ode to being a father, which includes lines like these: “But all children matures / Maybe even yours. // You improve them mentally / And straighten them dentally.”

The rest of the poem is equally delightful, and just one of the many treasures found in this literary and artistic collection.

Are you trying to tackle a towering gift list? Never fear! No matter who you’re shopping for, the right book is waiting.

WHITE HOUSE HISTORY
As an elementary school student, I had the good fortune to be part of a private White House Christmas tour led…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Making the season merry & bright

Feature by Alice Cary

In need of some merriment? Then look no further. These picture books for little ones will fill your household with marvelous doses of holiday cheer.

TWO NOVEL NATIVITIES
Every holiday season brings a fresh crop of nativity books and one of my new favorites is Linda Sue Park’s The Third Gift. This book was sparked by Park’s childhood curiosity about myrrh, one of the nativity gifts from the three wise men. Her beautifully written tale follows a father and son who collect this myrrh from trees in the Arabian desert.

Bagram Ibatoulline’s truly masterful illustrations are rendered in earthen tones, all suffused with a majestic golden glow that transports readers to another time and place. Father and son are so perfectly painted that they almost seem to have been photographed, as the boy learns his father’s trade and extracts one special “tear” of myrrh. Next, they go to the magical world of the spice market, where three reverent wise men are looking for a special gift to take to “a baby.”

The tale ends with an illustration of the wise men on their camels as they approach the holy family and a detailed, historical author’s note. Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is a rich, wondrous book.

A more lighthearted look at the nativity for younger readers can be found in Sally Lloyd-Jones’ Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story. Instead of focusing on the well-known journeys of Mary, Joseph and the three Wise Men, this book focuses on the excitement felt in the natural world, especially by creatures around the globe.

Lloyd-Jones’ spare text works perfectly with the luminous illustrations of Alison Jay, who works with quick-drying oil paint on paper and then adds crackle varnish for a centuries-old look. In this celebration of nature, Jay shows squirrels and owls listening to the wind’s message, whales diving, sandpipers darting, wild stallions galloping and a host of triumphant angels filling the sky.

HOLIDAY FUN TIMES THREE
Whether your household is naughty or nice, you’ll enjoy Nick Bruel’s latest romp, A Bad Kitty Christmas. In case you’re not familiar with Bruel’s popular feline, Bad Kitty is a curmudgeonly cat depicted in alphabetical rhymes like this one:

Our Yuletide looked Yucky!
My Zeal had been Zapped
When I had found Kitty
In the shreds where she napped!
“Oh, Kitty! Bad Kitty! I’m filled with
    distress!
You’ve ruined our Christmas!
Just look at this mess!

Bad Kitty has mangled the Christ­mas tree and gifts and ends up running away in anger. Alas, she finds herself lost in the city, but is rescued by a lonely old woman who teaches Kitty the real meaning of Christmas. As always, Bruel fills both story and pictures with energetic doses of magical mayhem.

For many, Christmas isn’t complete without a holiday tale (or two or three) by master writer and illustrator Tomie dePaola, and fans will be delighted by Strega Nona’s Gift. The book features two of his classic characters, who live in an Italian village and are perfect foils for each other: the magical cooking wizard Strega Nona and the dimwitted blunderer Big Anthony.

Strega Nona is cooking up a holiday feast for her animals, and she asks the starving Big Anthony to deliver the treats—but Big Anthony can’t be trusted and things go awry.

DePaola takes readers on a wonderful village tour during a holiday season filled with celebrations, from the Feast of San Nicola on December 6 until the big feast of Epiphany on January 6 (dePaola explains them all briefly in a helpful note).

Like Strega Nona, dePaola has a magical way, creating a snappy story with illustrations painted in transparent acrylics that resemble watercolors with their soft tones. He gets everything right, from Big Anthony’s stubby blond moptop to a Christmas Eve sunset that is stunning in its simple beauty.

Next is Eileen Spinelli’s The Perfect Christmas, which spins a warm tale of two very different families. At the Archers’ home, treats are served on three-tiered trays and relatives are dropped off by their chauffeurs. Next door to the Archers, however, holidays are a happy but haphazard affair, with macaroni reindeer decorations and home-baked cookies so hard that they can break a toe.

No matter which style of celebration you prefer, you’ll enjoy peeking in on these two families, courtesy of JoAnn Adinolfi’s fun-filled illus­trations. Don’t miss details like the mouse wearing a hard hat as Grandma’s cookies fall off the tray, or the refrigerator covered with magnet snowflakes, a math test and, of all things, a postcard from Tijuana.

TRADITIONAL TALES
David Rubel’s The Carpenter’s Gift has everything you want in a children’s holiday story: historical drama, superb illustrations and a meaningful message. Young Henry is used to waking up shivering in his family’s shack, but the chill wears off on Christmas Eve, 1931, when he and his out-of-work father borrow a truck, cut down some spruce trees and head to New York City to sell them. There they meet a kind man named Frank. At the end of the day, Henry and his dad leave an unsold tree for Frank and some other workers to enjoy.

On Christmas morning Henry is awakened by the toot-toot of several car horns: Frank and friends have come to build a brand-new home for Henry’s family. Henry grows up to become a carpenter himself and plants his own spruce tree, which many years later ends up being used as the Rockefeller Christmas tree.

Jim LaMarche’s illustrations are perfect, with faces full of emotion and outdoor scenes that capture the warm light of the many special moments in this story.  The author’s notes at the end of this book explain the history of the Rockefeller tree and the intriguing search to find it each year.

Enjoy another historical adventure with Frances and Peter, who live on a small New England island where their father works as the lighthouse keeper in Toni Buzzeo’s Lighthouse Christmas, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. Their mother has died and they’re waiting for a boat to Aunt Martha’s house on the mainland for a festive holiday celebration.

A raging snowstorm prevents Frances and Peter from traveling to Aunt Martha’s. Frances then has to keep the lighthouse lantern lit while her father rescues a shipwrecked mariner. With supplies running low, the celebration seems destined to be bleak.

Thankfully, the “Flying Santa” saves the day, dropping a sackful of presents onto the island. The Flying Santa Service began in 1929 to honor lighthouse keepers and their families in Maine. Buzzeo, who lives in Maine, explains in a historical note how the lovely tradition has spread and continues.

In need of some merriment? Then look no further. These picture books for little ones will fill your household with marvelous doses of holiday cheer.

TWO NOVEL NATIVITIES
Every holiday season brings a fresh crop of nativity books and one of my new favorites…

Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Gifts to inspire young imaginations

Feature by Joanna Brichetto

The excellence of this year’s crop of gift books for children means there is no need to agonize over which book is best. You can find something just right for all ages and stages of young readers.

FOR LITTLE ONES
My First Farm Friends by Betsy Wallin is a sweet read-and-play combo for babies through preschoolers. Four board books, one for each farmyard favorite—goat, cow, pig and chicken—show daily life on a happy family farm. We see where the animals live, what they eat, how they play and how the whole family works together to take good care of them. We also learn the real names for animals, like father rooster, mother hen and baby chicks; or, for the goats, father buck, mother doe and baby kid. The cute gift box in which the four books are contained is illustrated inside and out and instantly converts into a play barn with a working door. Children can act out the stories and make up new ones using the four sturdy, stand-up animals. A nice touch for tired parents is that each book ends with a sunset and cozy night scene just right for winding down with bedtime reading.

The Family Storybook Treasury: Tales of Laughter, Curiosity, and Fun assembles eight complete picture books and eight poems from the wide world of children’s literature. All are ideal for bedtime or anytime read-aloud sessions. They include Curious George and the Firefighters; Lyle Walks the Dog (starring everyone’s favorite crocodile); Martha Speaks (of PBS fame); Sheep in a Jeep (the hilarious, rhyming easy-reader); Tacky the Penguin; The Great Doughnut Parade; Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed; and the classic Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. All the stories are read aloud on the bonus audio CD. Tucked between books are delightfully random poems: a haiku here, freeform verse or a visual poem there. An enjoyable addition is the “meet the authors and illustrators” section, which gives a bit of background and refers to other works.

If you aren’t familiar with the wild and wonderful art of Caldecott winner Paul O. Zelinsky, now is the time. His “moving parts book” version of Knick-Knack ­Paddywhack turns the old counting song into an adventure with nonstop action. Every page has pop-ups, flaps, slides, tabs, wheels, pulls and more, and every movement furthers the story or extends the wordplay. The song unfolds (literally) as a boy and his dog wake up to not just one “old man,” but 10. Each little man enacts the words in silly ways until everyone ends up “rolling home” in a joyful heap. Read this one to little kids or let older readers have a go solo. All ages will enjoy the sophisticated paper engineering and detailed illustrations.

HANDS-ON FUN
Geraldine Cosneau’s All Around the World gives kids (ages 4 to 8) 400 cute stickers to position on huge fold-out illustrations of different biomes: the countryside, African savannah, Sahara desert, North American forest, Amazon rainforest, tropical sea, Australian outback and the Arctic. Each set of animal stickers is organized by habitat, so kids just have to decide where on that particular panorama each critter should go. The stickers are re-positionable, allowing for do-overs and repeat play. On the back of each fold-out are big, dotted outlines of animals, ready to be colored with crayon or marker. There is no text, but every animal and habitat is labeled, and the quirky artwork is enough to take kids on eight environmental adventures. Fold-outs can be removed for display or left in the book to re-do.

Hervé Tullet’s Doodle Cook is an activity book designed to get creative juices flowing in the 5- to 8-year-old set. An award-winning artist whose work appears in the New Yorker, Tullet is also known as the “prince of pre-school books,” and his exuberance is contagious. Young artists get 19 large-format “blank canvas plates” upon which to create masterpieces with crayon, pencil, pastel or marker, guided by a step-by-step recipe. Kids create Scribble Delight, Dot Stew, ZigZag Soup, Crayon Puff Pastries, Thousand Layer Cake and many more masterpieces, leading to the pièce de résistance, an original, from-scratch recipe. To be clear, no actual food is being prepared here, just actual art. Kids too young to read directions will still love to follow them if a grown-up helper reads them aloud. Both jacket flaps reveal examples of “ingredients” for kids to mimic: dots, triangles, blobs, fingerprints, spirals, squiggles and more.

Color scanimation comes to one of the most beloved movies ever in The Wizard of Oz: 10 Classic Scenes from Over the Rainbow, the latest of Rufus Butler Seder’s best-selling scanimation books, which incorporate “moving” images. Framed by a glittery, ruby-red cover (perfect!) is a picture of Dorothy’s ruby slippers tap, tap, tapping the way home. Inside are more iconic moments from the movie brought to life by the author’s technical wizardry, such as Dorothy’s house whirling into the air, the Scarecrow’s dance, the Tin Man’s reawakening, the foursome’s skipping journey down the Yellow Brick Road and the Wicked Witch with her infamous flying monkeys. Each page is faced by a quote from the character at hand, a drawing and a brief synopsis of the plot. Not to be missed: the Wicked Witch meeting her wet and memorable demise: “Oh, what a world!” The book is designed for ages 9 to 12, but anyone old enough to love the movie will love this innovative tribute.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Pop-Up Book, written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake, is the real deal. By this I mean it is the real story with the original illustrator, and even if you or your child hated (or loved, for that matter) the Willy Wonka films, the book came first and it is stellar. What’s new this time around is the pop-up feature. Pairing Dahl’s wacky story and Blake’s mad illustrations with paper engineering seems inevitable, somehow. Slide the tab and Mike Teevee disappears into the television set. Pull another and plunge Veruca down the reject hole in the Nut Room. And of course, there is a bar of chocolate needing only a few tugs to reveal a Golden Ticket. Unlike the movies, this version is guaranteed not to elicit nightmares about Oompa-Loompas and other liberties. Fun for older readers to enjoy on their own and as a read-aloud for younger ones.

Michael Hague, one of America’s most acclaimed illustrators, lends his artistry to 14 favorite stories in Treasured Classics. The “classics” include such stories as “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “The Gingerbread Man,” “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Three Little Pigs.” Artwork on every page makes each tale all the more compelling for young readers and listeners. Hague’s style is legendary, full of fantasy and magic, and it honors the drama without infantilizing it. The target audience is 9- to 12-year-olds, if they can be convinced they are not too old for fairy tales. Of course, no one is too old for fairy tales in general—or this collection in particular.

LOOKING & LEARNING
Legendary Journeys: Ships, illustrated by Sebastian Quigley, is written by Brian Lavery, who in his day job is Curator Emeritus of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. The book is like a personal, interactive museum display, full of exploded views, fascinating marginalia and 10 amazing slide-out extensions that double the width and bring the ships to life. Readers take a journey through time from the earliest ships, such as a Greek trireme warship, to modern cargo giants and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. In between are famous vessels like the ships of Columbus, Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ironclad Monitor from the Civil War, the clipper ship Cutty Sark, the ill-fated Titanic and the USS Nimitz from the current naval fleet. Cutaways and cross-sections detail inner and outer workings, and an index rounds out the volume. For ages 8 and up.

My Fabulous Look Book: Fashion Drawing Made Easy claims no drawing skills are required, but whoever uses Karen Phillips’ entertaining guide will build skills soon enough. Budding designers, personal stylists, makeup artists and hairstylists will find a complete kit: 10 pencil colors, teeny sparkly stickers, a die-cut portfolio to show off favorite looks and, most importantly, “art starters”: tons of pale sketch outlines ready to make over. These include various head shots, full body poses and details of hands, feet and bags to inspire hairstyles, clothes of all sorts, plus jewelry and accessories to die for. Tips show how to draw specific effects with cross-hatching, rubbing and layering. Plenty of examples in each category (hair, skin, cheeks, eyes, lips, apparel, shoes and so on) offer authentic technique and inspiration for ages 8 and up.

The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict’s Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums is the must-have companion for fans of the best-selling Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart. Just as Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance had to pass certain tests of wit to be admitted into the Society, so all fans must pass the “ultimate challenge” within this collection. The variety of puzzles is staggering: Morse code, geography, logic, wordplay, memory, spatial relations, patterns, hidden codes, limericks, sequences and counting in Tamil, to name a few, and all require an extensive knowledge of the stories. Luckily, the book includes a section of “helpful resources” with a glossary, many hints and a sneak peek at the next entry in the series. For ages 8 to 12.

The excellence of this year’s crop of gift books for children means there is no need to agonize over which book is best. You can find something just right for all ages and stages of young readers.

FOR LITTLE ONES
My First Farm Friends by Betsy…

Less stress (and more exercise) in 2012

Feature by Deanna Larson

New books on healthy living emphasize workouts and eating plans for different lifestyles and goals—whether you want to lose inches fast, make better choices at the drive-thru or simply minimize stress.

SHORT, EFFECTIVE WORKOUTS
Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazines are known for their bold design, clean layouts and solid information. The Women’s Health Big Book of 15 Minute Workouts and The Men’s Health Big Book of 15 Minute Workouts are chunky little powerhouses that feature those same elements while promising “433 ultra-effective exercises, 1 hard body: yours!” Recent research shows that brief workouts can be just as effective as pounding away at the treadmill or spin class for hours at a time; these books are packed with 85 super-fast workouts and hundreds of exercises that banish boredom and maximize results. Each exercise is clearly described with step-by-step photos that make it easy to achieve good form. From the Super-Fast Weight Loss System Workout and  Cardio Interval Training to exercises for Healing, Sports Training and Better Sex, these books target every possible fitness goal a man (see: Iron Glute, Deltoid Definer, Six-Pack Abs, The Flat Butt Fix workouts) or woman (see: Hourglass Body, Pushup Bra, Belly Pooch, Michelle Obama Arms workouts) could ever desire.

BETTER EATING ON THE GO
The influential Eat This, Not That! franchise introduced readers to the nutritional disasters hidden in supermarket aisles and behind restaurant menus, and the small swaps that promote better health and lower calories without dieting. The updated and expanded 2012 edition of Eat This, Not That! The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution features still-shocking entries in the Not That category (The Cheesecake Factory’s sautéed spinach side has the fat equivalent of 14 strips of bacon). However, it also includes new Eat This items offered by restaurants, thanks to shaming and pressure from anti-obesity crusader David Zinczenko, who co-authors the books with Matt Goulding. Back are the compact, color-coded spreads with product and menu-item comparisons in categories like fast food, chain restaurant and supermarket foods. Also included are Holidays and Special Occasions; foods marketed to kids; and an excellent Cook This section, with recipes for healthier versions of restaurant favorites. Zinczenko also shares Eat This success stories and a list of America’s 20 Worst Foods. While the best approach to eating healthfully is cooking from scratch, the book arms a typical American—who grabs breakfast from the drive-thru, lunch at a chain restaurant and dinner from the freezer most days of the week—with vital information they can use to find the health bonanzas and bombs.

GOOD STRESS AND BAD
Dr. Mehmet Oz and his sidekick Dr. Michael Roizen, authors of the best-selling You series (You on a Diet, You Staying Young) are back with You: Stress Less. This brief, useful and easily digestible book looks at good stress and bad stress—and provides tips beyond chocolate and bubble baths to minimize its destructive effects so you can live a happy, healthy life. Starting with the science behind stress, the docs take readers through healthy lifestyle basics including recipes for delicious healthy food, or “nature’s best medicine.” Stress management techniques are covered in sections on activity, relationships, pain management, good communication, managing anger, workplace stresses and the “Big Picture” of spirituality and giving, ending with a guide for developing your own stress plan—making this slim volume a mini-doctorate in preventative health care.

A SPUR TO GET ACTIVE
Working Out Sucks! (And Why It Doesn’t Have To): The Only 21-Day Kick-Start Plan for Total Health and Fitness You’ll Ever Need is an audacious approach to the challenges that keep people from getting fit. “Working out is a chore that ranks somewhere behind window washing, gutter cleaning and dog poop scooping,” writes author Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness, a chain of 1,600 health clubs across America. Aided by colleagues Brian Zehetner, a registered dietitian, and Rebecca A. DeRossett, executive coach and owner of Stillwater Psychological Associates, Runyon lays out the connection between good health and exercise, and the reasons the average person should develop fitness goals. Less a workout book and more an entertaining, kick-in-the-backside companion, Runyon “deprograms” fitness “brainwashing” of bad information, destructive attitudes and habits. His good-natured rants are followed by a section on changing defeatist attitudes, plus a 21-day kick-start plan including daily meal and workout suggestions. “While vanity may provide the initial motivation,” Runyon writes, “it’s the internal reward—the regular dose of accomplishment and pride—that turns regular people into fitness addicts.”

DANCE-INSPIRED FITNESS
The Physique 57® Solution isn’t for sissies, but the subtitle does promise “A Groundbreaking 2-Week Plan for a Lean, Beautiful Body.” Authors and dancers Tanya Becker and Jennifer Maanavi were devotees of the Lotte Berk Method, a strengthening and stretching technique created by Russian ballerina Lotte Berk. After her studio closed, the pair adapted her methods as Physique 57®, a combination of interval training, isometric exercises and orthopedic stretches that aims to lengthen and sculpt muscles for a lean body. Aimed at women with a promise to help them “lose up to 10 inches fast,” the regimen uses a process called “Interval Overload” to bring muscles to the point of fatigue—“where it starts to burn and shake”—to provide “the greatest possible stimulus” for greater results with fewer reps. The book’s 57-minute workouts are illustrated with black and white photographs, and the exercises are followed by a “kitchen diva” section with nutrition tips and recipes for a “macro-nutrient-rich approach to weight loss.” Those familiar with Pilates and other dancer-inspired workouts won’t shy away from this challenging path to an enviable body.

New books on healthy living emphasize workouts and eating plans for different lifestyles and goals—whether you want to lose inches fast, make better choices at the drive-thru or simply minimize stress.

SHORT, EFFECTIVE WORKOUTS
Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazines are known for their…

Children's & YAPicture Book

African-American tales of triumph

Feature by Julie Hale

Black History Month is a special period of celebration and commemoration—a time for looking back at the individuals and events that made progress possible. In honor of this special time, BookPage has rounded up a group of new picture books that chronicle some of the highlights of the African-American legacy.

MAKING SPIRITS SOAR
In Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper, Ann Malaspina revisits a thrilling chapter in American sports—the story of the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. Born in Albany, Georgia, to impoverished parents, Alice Coachman seems destined to defy gravity. Leaping over tree roots and shooting baskets with towering boys, practicing the high jump with a crossbar made of branches and rags, Alice, as depicted in Eric Velasquez’s dynamic paintings, seems always to be airborne. Her father disapproves of her tomboyish behavior, but when she’s invited to join the Tuskegee Institute’s famous Golden Tigerettes track team, Alice develops skills that take her to the 1948 London Olympics. There she soars farther than she ever imagined, setting a new Olympic high jump record. Malaspina employs a spirited prose style to tell the story of Alice’s extraordinary career.

A LEADER GETS HIS START
Proving that knowledge really is power, Lesa Cline-Ransome’s Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass recounts the rise of one of America’s greatest orators. Frederick Douglass spends his early childhood on a Maryland plantation where slaves caught reading are severely punished. When he’s transferred to the home of the Auld family in Baltimore, Frederick gets his first taste of formal education. Kind-hearted Missus Auld gives him lessons in the alphabet, and Frederick is soon obsessed, practicing in secret with a brick and chalk. At the age of 12, he buys his first newspaper and encounters words like “abolition” and “liberty.” Against all odds, Frederick educates himself and—later on, at great risk—his fellow slaves. By unlocking the secrets of language, he arms himself for the future. Featuring beautifully nuanced pictures by the author’s husband, James E. Ransome, this moving book comes with a clear message: Education is the key to success.

OVATION FOR A LEGEND
With Jazz Age Josephine, Jonah Winter offers an irresistible homage to a groundbreaking performer. Born dirt poor in St. Louis, Missouri, young Josephine Baker spends part of her childhood in the city slums, where she’s taunted by other kids. Using theatrics as a survival tactic—clowning and dancing to hide her hurt—she makes a little money and eventually joins a traveling show as a dancer, but the blues follow. At one point, she’s so broke, a bench in Central Park serves as her bed. At the age of 19, Josephine takes off for Paris, where she finds her artistic footing and gets a taste of what liberation is like. Embracing her race and blossoming as a performer, she hits the heights of fame but never forgets her St. Louis roots. Winter’s blues-inflected writing style is perfectly complemented by Marjorie Priceman’s bright, impressionistic visuals. Brimming with infectious energy, Winter’s book is a showstopper from start to finish.

HOME RUN HERO
Showing how team spirit in sports helped break down racial barriers, Chris Crowe’s Just as Good: How Larry Doby Changed America’s Game is a wonderful depiction of the brotherhood of baseball. It’s the fall of 1948, and the city of Cleveland is humming with anticipation for game four of the World Series—a contest between the city’s own Indians and the Boston Braves. An African-American boy named Homer narrates the events of the big day, as he and his parents gather around the radio to listen to the game. Homer’s hero, Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League, will be stepping up to the plate. When Doby hits a home run in the third inning, he makes history, becoming the first African-American ballplayer to do so in the World Series. Mike Benny depicts Homer’s wide-eyed excitement through luminous illustrations, while Crowe seamlessly weaves facts and stats from the actual game into the storyline.

VERSES OF FREEDOM
Ntozake Shange is a beloved African-American playwright, poet and novelist. With Freedom’s
a-Callin’ Me, she delivers a timeless collection of verse inspired by the Underground Railroad—dramatic and impassioned poems about slaves dreaming of escape, the white folks who help them and the trackers who trail them. Shange writes with wonderful authenticity and an ear for syntax, conjuring up a group of unforgettable narrators who experience hope, danger and loss on the road to a better life. The book’s title poem eloquently describes one man’s plan to flee, to “mix myself way low in the cotton . . . wind myself like a snake / till ah can swim ’cross the stream.” The poems are filled with arresting imagery—slave hunters leading ferocious hounds, overseers wielding their whips—which Rod Brown brings to life in his sensitively rendered paintings. Throughout the book, Shange offers different perspectives and stories to create a multifaceted look at the secret system that changed so many lives. This is a wonderful introduction to an important chapter in African-American history—and to the narrative possibilities of poetry.

A REMARKABLE DAY
Written and illustrated by acclaimed author Shane W. ­Evans, We March is a stirring account of a history-making event as seen through the eyes of one African-American family. On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people came together for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an episode forever inscribed on the American memory thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Evans’ tale brings the momentous day down to a personal level, as the family prepares to march, painting signs, praying and joining the procession to the Lincoln Memorial. Evans’ brief, poetic lines have a simple majesty that reflects the significance of the occasion. His vibrantly illustrated story gives readers a sense of what it might have been like to join the crowd taking crucial steps on the road to freedom.

Black History Month is a special period of celebration and commemoration—a time for looking back at the individuals and events that made progress possible. In honor of this special time, BookPage has rounded up a group of new picture books that chronicle some of the…

Romance

Romantic delights for Valentine’s Day

Feature by Lois Dyer

February has arrived: the month of hearts, cupids and romance. What better way to celebrate than with a romance novel? Fortunately for readers, the month brings four exceptionally stellar romance novels. Indulge. Enjoy. Viva la romance!

A STUNNING FINALE TO A HEROIC TRILOGY

Best-selling author Stephanie Laurens returns readers to Regency England and the ranks of her beloved Cynster family with The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae, the third title in the Searching For A Hero trilogy. At last, readers will learn why a mysterious Scottish lord has dared to kidnap two ladies of the British ton. And these are not just any ladies—they’re sisters and members of the Cynster family. The powerful family had been told that the man behind the kidnappings had fallen to his death. But now Angelica Cynster, the youngest of the three sisters, has become his third target.

When Angelica Cynster sees a tall, dark, handsome lord across a ballroom, she’s intrigued and determined to meet him. She has no idea that Dominic Guisachan, the Earl of Glencrae, is the man responsible for the earlier kidnappings of her two older sisters. Before the night is over, Dominic explains the reason behind the mysterious kidnappings and asks for her help. After considering the Earl’s tale, Angelica takes the biggest gamble of her life and agrees to join forces with him to save his highland clan. When Dominic leaves London for Scotland, Angelica goes with him. He knew their escape from London would be fraught with danger, but Dominic hadn’t anticipated the threat Angelica would pose to his heart. As an honorable lord of the realm, he’s fully aware that taking her with him means they must marry. She, however, insists on postponing a decision as to whether she will wed until they’ve resolved the threat to his clan.

The journey is fraught with danger but at last they reach Mheadhoin Castle. Despite Dominic’s warnings, Angelica finds the mystery and danger swirling about his castle even more ominous than she’d expected. Old enmities, long-held grudges, and dangerous secrets threaten violence and harm to both her and Dominic. Fortunately, the long trip from London to Scotland has forged a deep, passionate bond between them. They will need all their faith and determination to defeat the evil forces bent on destroying Dominic’s clan from within.

The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae is a wonderfully satisfying conclusion to this series. No question is left unanswered, no plot thread left dangling as Ms. Laurens deftly wraps up the trilogy while giving readers a fully developed, intriguing story that stands on its own. Longtime readers will delight in appearances by Cynster family members and new fans will be charmed to meet characters from prior books. As always in a Laurens’ story, the novel’s Regency setting is brilliantly detailed and the romance heated and passionate.

SECRETS, SIZZLE AND PSI-CODES

Seattle author Jayne Ann Krentz launches the Dark Legacy series with Copper Beach, a contemporary paranormal mystery set in the Pacific Northwest.

Rare book locator Abby Radwell has an unusual psychic gift: She can unlock the psi-codes in books sealed by paranormal means. The unique talent brings her to the attention of a dangerous killer who needs her expertise in locating a long-lost lab journal and decoding its secrets. When blackmail notes arrive in her email inbox, Abby realizes someone has discovered that she has a second, rarely-used and powerful, psychic talent. She turns to investigator Sam Coppersmith to stop the threats, keep her safe and expose the blackmailer.

The mysterious, reclusive Sam has his own secrets. He suspects the threats to Abby are linked to a business associate and a decades-old lab book that has recently surfaced. Sam’s father is convinced the information contained in the lab notes has the potential to cause havoc in the world. Sam agrees with his father that some paranormal secrets are too dangerous for man to control.

The moment Sam meets Abby, he reacts to her on every level—sexually, mentally, emotionally—and his responses are heightened by the flare of psychic energy that sizzles between them. Abby feels the same and it’s soon clear that they’re bound together by more than their need to solve the threat to her life.

It’s equally apparent that someone is willing to do whatever it takes, including murder, to gain possession of the rare lab book and compel Abby’s cooperation in unlocking its secrets. Soon, too many people are dying and it will take all of Sam and Abby’s combined mental agility and psychic strengths to stay alive and unveil the killer.

Ms. Krentz continues a long list of excellent paranormal mysteries with Copper Beach. The novel blends paranormal elements with blackmail, murder and romance with seamless ease. There’s a thoroughly satisfying personal arc for Abby, as well, as she resolves long-held issues with difficult members of her blended family. As always with Ms. Krentz, the writing is crisp and clean, the characters well-developed, the setting vivid and the plot details well constructed. All in all, Copper Beach is one terrific read.

ELECTRIC, INEVITABLE ATTRACTION

Author Heather Snow makes her literary debut with Sweet Enemy, a historical romance set in Regency England. Beautiful Liliana Claremont is determined to spend her life pursuing the study of chemistry, botany and other assorted sciences. She has no interest in acquiring a husband. But when she discovers that her father’s death was not caused by burglars but was instead premeditated murder, she’s determined to find out why he was killed. The clues point to a connection with the deceased Earl of Stratford and she agrees to accompany her aunt and cousin to a house party at the Stratford country estate; the opportunity to further her investigation is simply too good to resist.

Indulge in four romantic novels this Valentine's Day.

The current Earl of Stratford, Geoffrey Wentworth, has no interest in marriage, either. He’s tricked into returning to his country estate by an urgent letter from his scheming mother. When he arrives, he learns she’s determined to maneuver him into proposing marriage to one of the eligible ladies she’s gathered for a house party. Furious at being called away from his political labors in London, Geoffrey remains at the estate only because his mother has also invited several powerful men with whom he seeks alliances. Nonetheless, he swears to cede his manipulative mother only minimal cooperation. As to choosing one of the hopeful ladies as his bride? He’s adamantly opposed and has no intention of selecting a future wife from the gathering.

Both Liliana and Geoffrey’s plans go awry on the very first night when Geoffrey bumps into Liliana and literally knocks her into his arms. From then on, their interaction appears inevitable. Fate seems determined to throw them together and their prejudices are gradually erased as they discover that neither is what the other expected. Despite their earlier intentions, both find themselves falling in love, though each struggles to deny the deepening emotion.

As Liliana searches for clues to her father’s murder, she uncovers startling information that threatens the growing connection between herself and Geoffrey. She fears the truth will destroy any hope of a future for them, yet she feels compelled to solve the mystery. Neither Liliana nor Geoffrey could have foreseen the danger that threatens their lives nor the depth of love that will be required to save them.

Sweet Enemy pairs a strong, independent heroine with a compassionate, politically active hero. The heroine’s unique knowledge of chemistry provides for some interesting twists, which combine with a solid plot, well-developed characters and deftly drawn setting to make an excellent first novel. Readers will be delighted to add Ms. Snow to their list of must-read authors.

THRILLS AND CHILLS

Best-selling author Lara Adrian moves to hardcover with Darker After Midnight, a riveting novel that will keep readers mesmerized. This 10th title in the author’s Midnight Breed series stars Sterling Chase, a member of a group of Breed warriors called the Order. The Order is charged with protecting Breeds and maintaining peace with the human world, but Sterling has fallen from grace and is edging much too close to the line dividing sanity and madness.

Beautiful Tavia Fairchild witnesses Sterling in what she thinks is a serious crime, and he takes her captive when he runs from the police. Something about Tavia calls to his deepest instincts, but even Sterling could not have predicted the stunning truth about the beautiful female.

Thrust into a world she never knew existed, Tavia is forced to rely on Sterling and his fellow warriors if she’s to survive— for the ultimate evil, a power-mad vampire named Dragos, is about to detonate chaos on an unsuspecting earth. With the streets awash in blood and death, Sterling and Tavia will have to use all their combined power and cunning to defeat Dragos and save the world.

Legions of paranormal romance readers are addicted to Adrian’s novels, and Darker After Midnight is sure to delight her fans with its thrills, chills and shocking revelations about the world of the Midnight Breeds. If you like romance combined with heart-stopping paranormal suspense, you’re going to love this book.

Lois Faye Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington

February has arrived: the month of hearts, cupids and romance. What better way to celebrate than with a romance novel? Fortunately for readers, the month brings four exceptionally stellar romance novels. Indulge. Enjoy. Viva la romance!

A STUNNING FINALE TO A HEROIC TRILOGY

Best-selling author Stephanie…

NonfictionFiction

The tragedy that still resonates, a century later

Feature by Heather Seggel

April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and several new books are being published to both mark the centennial and shed new light on the famous disaster. The selections featured here range from straight historical analysis of the event to fiction that uses the sinking ship as a starting place for its characters.

SOULS ON BOARD

Voyagers of the Titanic focuses on the ship’s passengers, from first class and its posh surroundings down to those in steerage, some of whom helped to build the ship. Biographer and historian Richard Davenport-Hines finds stories even in the items recovered from the dead: John Jacob Astor IV, the ship’s wealthiest passenger, died with $4,000 cash on his person, while Greek farmworker Vassilios Katavelas carried just a mirror, comb, 10 cents and a train ticket. A gripping chapter dedicated to plotting out the ship’s collision and sinking is where such attention to detail pays off—having come to know and care about the people on board in a new way makes the poignancy of losing them fresh again.

DISSECTING A DISASTER

Maritime historian John Maxtone-Graham begins Titanic Tragedy with biographical sketches of Guglielmo Marconi and Samuel Morse, whose inventions enabled wireless communication between ships. (They seemingly foresaw instant messaging, too: Busy radio operators would dismiss interruptions with “GTH” rather than type “Go to Hell.”) While there were failings in radio communication during the wreck, without it everyone on board would have perished while awaiting rescue. Maxtone-Graham then shifts focus to bring us inside the shipyard and the building of the ocean liner everyone thought unsinkable, and captures the drama of its untimely end without injecting his opinion. There are no broadly drawn heroes and villains here, just people thrown into a desperate situation for which they are horribly unprepared. He reserves his ire for those who have turned historically relevant sites into tourist attractions or housing developments; those locations contain stories yet untold that may never be known to us.

There are no broadly drawn heroes and villains here, just people thrown into a desperate situation for which they are horribly unprepared.

THOSE LEFT BEHIND

Andrew Wilson’s Shadow of the Titanic looks for meaning in the aftermath of the disaster, following up on survivors “after the glare of attention had dimmed.” It’s both dishy and speculative, and as such very entertaining. White Star Lines Captain Bruce Ismay, long despised for taking a seat in a lifeboat rather than going down with the ship (a scenario eerily relived in the recent sinking of the Costa Concordia), is casually labeled a “masochist” on rather scant evidence. The nervous chatter among some first-class passengers while awaiting rescue is parsed for damning evidence of self-involvement among the idle rich. Shadow of the Titanic nevertheless gives us an interesting new view of the tragedy, including the fact that among survivors, some felt the four days aboard the rescue ship Carpathia were more traumatic than the accident that led them there.

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS

Shifting gears, we find a novel that sets sail just in time to crash, at which point things really get interesting. In The Dressmaker, novelist Kate Alcott invents a plucky maid for the very real Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, fashion designer and inventor of the runway show. The story opens with Tess Collins spontaneously hiring on with “Madame” and boarding the doomed ocean liner. By the time boat meets iceberg, she’s already attracted two suitors and begun to assume an inappropriate degree of familiarity with her cruel and capricious new boss. The love triangle plays out as public hearings threaten the Duff Gordon name, and Tess quickly trades in her tea tray for needle and thread as she moves up in the rag trade. The historical backdrop includes a look at the burgeoning movement for women’s suffrage, and some of the dialogue from the hearings is lifted verbatim from Lady Duff Gordon’s actual testimony in a British inquiry. The Dressmaker is a Titanic story, but more than that, a finely stitched work about love and loyalty.

April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and several new books are being published to both mark the centennial and shed new light on the famous disaster. The selections featured here range from straight historical analysis of the event…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Making the shift from playtime to bedtime

Feature by Joanna Brichetto

Bedtime books are worth their weight in gold if they work. The good ones—like these five new picture books—can help parents and children ease the tricky transition from day to night, light to dark and together to alone.

IN SHINING ARMOR
Owen Davey’s Night Knight transforms every element of a typical, boring bedtime routine into something fantastical. “For a knight like me, going to bed . . . is a great adventure,” begins the story, with one half of the sentence on the left page accompanying a boy wearing PJs and a colander helmet, and the other half of the sentence over on the right, with the same boy, same yawn, but dressed in full knightly getup. As he heads down the hallway and climbs the stairs, each picture combines the real and the fantastic: a telephone table and a forest, a hall closet and a snow-peaked mountain. The artwork, self-described as “contemporary and nostalgic,” calms in warm, muted brick tones, even as the imagined action busies itself with mythical creatures and noble exertions. Preschool and kindergarten children and parents will dub this daydream royally engaging.

NATURE’S WAY
Sweet Dreams by Rose A. Lewis, illustrated by Jen Corace, is a nature lullaby that works by color-soaked stealth. Although it begins and ends with the same four-line wish for “my precious child” whose “dreams be long and sweet,” thefocus is not so much on the child being put to bed as it is on the nighttime world waking outside the window. Mr. Moon, “who’ll watch you through the night,” also watches owlets in a nest and a tiny mouse family, while moonflower blossoms eclipse spent morning glories. Butterflies trade places with gray moths as crickets, possums, raccoons, frogs and other nocturnal animals “come alive in darkness.” Night, then, is something natural and nothing to fear. Lilting verse and predictable rhymes keep the mood soft but open to interaction. Young children can supply the last word of each page, or succumb entirely (and tiredly) to sleep.

A STUBBORN HOLDOUT
The daughter-father team of Kate and Jules Feiffer has created another winner with No Go Sleep! In a marvelous economy of word and ink, they transform what is one of the most frustrating scenarios of all time—the sleep-resistant baby—into its own delightful antidote. “One night when the stars were out and the moon was bright, a baby said, ‘No go sleep!’ “ Mom, Dad and the rest of the adjacent world, working in a gentle and benevolent conspiracy, try to persuade baby it is really, truly time. The sun, moon and stars weigh in, as do birds, frogs, bunnies, the tree above the house and “a car driving by” (which says, “Beep, beep, sleep, sleep”). Birds, frogs and bunnies reassure baby that he won’t be missing much. The dog, however, is already asleep. Resistance is lovingly futile, and the abrupt ending is a happy one for all concerned.

FAMILY OUTINGS
Good Night, Laila Tov by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Jui Ishida, uses simple, rhyming verse to describe a family on a camping trip. “Good night, laila tov” is the restful refrain after each day’s adventures in the natural world: A sunset sky sings it, a nighttime road rumbles it, a forest storm shushes it, and ocean waves whisper it. Laila tov happens to be Hebrew for “good night,” just as the sweet family in the luminous illustrations happens to be Jewish. The particular becomes universal with takeaway themes of discovery (and stewardship) of the environment, family time and gratitude. All families should be this lucky: to plant tree seedlings, gather berries, collect treasures in a jar, watch deer in a field and tuck each other into bed so tenderly. The youngest listeners will enjoy guessing the predictable rhyme at the end of each couplet.

IT’S TIME!
Adam Mansbach’s Seriously, Just Go to Sleep is a hoot. Exhausted parents need a chuckle at the end of an impossibly long day, and this G-rated version of the surprise bestseller Go the F**k to Sleep will deliver it. If you were too scandalized to pick up a copy of the adult book, try this one. If you bought the first version and hid it so well that you will never find it, this one is 100 percent safe. Even toddlers will appreciate Ricardo Cortés’ illustrations of cheeky peers wide awake amid sleeping lions, farm animals and all manner of obligingly restful critters. The rhythmic text describes natural, sleepy scenes, but each ends in a plea for the child at hand, the one still awake right now, to join the club already. This insistent change of key is funny on any level: sweet, sarcastic or just plain tired.

Bedtime books are worth their weight in gold if they work. The good ones—like these five new picture books—can help parents and children ease the tricky transition from day to night, light to dark and together to alone.

IN SHINING ARMOR
Owen Davey’s Night…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Poetry springs up everywhere

Feature by Alice Cary

Every year I look forward to the spring crop of children’s poetry books, which always brings a bouquet of creativity. This year is no exception.

UNEXPECTED FINDS

The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems, illustrated by Antoine Guilloppé, is a fascinating collection sure to captivate young and old alike. Just leave this book out in plain sight and watch what happens!

What is a “found” poem, you might ask? It’s a piece of already existing text that is then “made” into a poem, as explained by editor Georgia Heard, who collected these examples. Such text might be a line from Twitter, a note found on a floor, a photo caption, a sign or graffiti.

For instance, here’s a poem called “Pep Talk” that consists of phrases from a box of OxiClean detergent:

   Keep cool.
   See a brighter solution.
   Mountain freshness.
   Boost your power!

This little book makes for fun perusing. There’s a poem created by crossword puzzle clues, another from a dictionary entry and another from the book titles on a young girl’s shelf. This is a collection guaranteed to inspire family fun or give students a new way to look at poetry.

SEND THE KIDS OUTSIDE!

Run, jump, blow bubbles or stomp in a puddle: That’s the refreshing theme of A Stick is an Excellent Thing: Poems Celebrating Outdoor Play. Prolific poet Marilyn Singer doesn’t disappoint in this celebration of classic children’s fun, which is likely to remind adults of their own experiences hosing friends with sprinklers, rolling down hills and playing hopscotch or hide and seek.

Singer captures the endearing exuberance of childhood with poems like “Really Fast”:

   Skateboard races,
   pigeon chases,
   running bases.
   Backyard dashes,
   racecar crashes,
   puddle splashes.
   Everything’s a blast
   when you do it really fast!

LeUyem Pham’s illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to these lively poems. Her colorful pages are full of smiling kids who laugh, leap and lunge. But be forewarned: This book isn’t a great choice for bedtime, because the poems will make readers want to head right out the door.

Outdoorsy kids are likely to adore a new poetry collection with the engrossing title Nasty Bugs. Children’s poetry connoisseur Lee Bennett Hopkins has collected another winning swarm of poems, with names sure to entice kids, such as “Stink Bug,” “Ode to a Dead Mosquito” and “Barbed and Dangerous.”

Will Terry’s illustrations are truly glorious, with a spread on the stink bug swirling in a fiery background of orange, red and yellow as a huge green bug leers at the reader, with fumes rising. Terry brings readers eye to eye with a litany of malevolent creatures, such as fire ants, boll weevils, lice and bedbugs.

Many mothers will (not!) appreciate the first verse of Amy Ludwig Vanderwater’s poem, “Lice”:

   Ridiculous Pediculus
   O tiny vampire louse
   You crawl from head
               to head
                       to head
   from house
              to house
                      to house.

Not only are these poems fun, they also contain facts that will keep kids entertained, educated and grossed out, all at the same time. In addition, an explanatory section at the end contains a short but intriguing entry for each bug mentioned.

For more outdoor poems, dip into the exceptionally clever A Meal of the Stars: Poems Up and Down. Dana Jensen has written a series of “vertical” poems, with each line containing just one word. Some of these poems read from top to bottom, while others read from bottom to top. Kids will love this form and no doubt want to try to write their own.

Jensen writes about such upward and downward topics as giraffe necks, popping balloons, rockets blasting into space and kites soaring in the wind. Tricia Tusa’s illustrations add the perfect touch of humor, personality and motion.

DOUBLE TAKE

When my identical twin girls were born 13 years ago, I dearly wish I’d had Take Two! A Celebration of Twins. This is a treasure chest of poems for parents, siblings and twins, sprinkled here and there with interesting facts. (Imagine, for instance, this hard-to-believe item: “In the 1700s, Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev of Shuya, Russia, had sixteen sets of twins. She also gave birth to four sets of quadruplets and seven sets of triplets!”)

Written by the dynamic children’s literature duo of J. Patrick Lewis (a twin himself) and Jane Yolen, these fun poems address many aspects of twinhood, including the novelty, fun and frustrations. Best of all, the poems are both heartfelt and humorous. Consider these lines from “What’s It Like to Be a Twin?”:

   ’Cause a twin’s a double rainbow
   Or the fork that goes with the knife.
   He may wear around the edges,
   But he’s guaranteed for life.

This is a beautifully designed book as well, with layouts pleasing to the eye and doubly adorable illustrations by Sophie Blackall. Even though my twins become teenagers this month, I’m keeping this book on our shelves for years to come.

BOOK SENSE

BookSpeak!: Poems about Books is a lively, lovely literary collection. Laura Purdie Salas writes verses about things like coming to the end of a book, falling asleep while reading and an avid reader begging for a sequel. One particularly clever poem asks readers to pay attention to the indexes of books and says: “So I’m telling you, kid: / ignore the rest of the book. / All you really need is me.”

Josee Bisaillon’s illustrations are varied and wonderful, adding an extra dimension of fun and whimsy.

Every year I look forward to the spring crop of children’s poetry books, which always brings a bouquet of creativity. This year is no exception.

UNEXPECTED FINDS

The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems, illustrated by Antoine Guilloppé, is a fascinating collection…

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