The Places You Will Go

Picture Book of the Month: Pete's a Pizza

March 2007

PETE'S A PIZZA
By William Steig
Publisher: Red Fox, 32 pages
ISBN: 978-0099411284

Pete has the sulks when rain prevents him from going out to play. And so, his parents set out to cheer him up ... by turning him into a pizza! They use talcum powder for flour, water for oil, checkerboard pieces for tomatoes, and paper for cheese. Pete is kneaded and pulled and stretched and tossed out of his bad mood, and, finally, after a big hug, he sees that the sun has come out again! Every child should have parents like Pete's!   

Reading Room

Reading Room today features books (and people) that help inspire and enlighten you in all areas of your life.

Reading Pictures

Warren Dennis
Man Reading at Table

The Little House Series

I was having a hard time deciding which book to feature on this week's Illustrated Monday until I read a column, in The Horn Book Magazine, about reissues.

Apparently, new versions of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books do not contain Garth Williams's drawings. Neither does his art appear on the covers. Instead, photographs are used.

Also, it seems that you have to pay US$2 more if you want the versions in which Williams' illustrations appear. However, you don't get the original  black-and-white pictures: they've all been colourised, which some may prefer. I don't!

A five-in-one book called A Little House Collection (below, left) has also been released. It comprises the first five Little House books (Little House in the Big Woods, Little House On the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake and The Long Winter). I have no idea why they didn't include Little Town on the Prairie and  These Happy Golden Years.

Says the columnist Terri Schmitz, "At 618 pages, with a whopping  forty-dollar price tag, A Little House Collection is almost impossible to handle, and in order to accommodate all of the text every page is divided into two columns, with the art squeezed in willy-nilly. It's a shameful and unnecessary way to treat Mrs Wilder, whose books have given so much pleasure to so many children over the years. Her books deserve better than being reduced into a doorstop." Hear hear!

Anyway, after all that, this week's featured illustrations are by Garth Williams and from the Little House books.

I went to the HarperCollins website to have a look at those new Little House books. Well, what do you think? I say, "TACKY!"

Books I Want on My Shelf

In Star Mag's Reads Monthly pullout, I'll be highlighting the books I want on my shelf for that month.

Kinokuniya Bookstores is offering a 25% discount on these books.

Maybe They'll Use the Cliff Notes Versions

Linked in Read Roger: The poshest bookclub in LA?

"I know we're supposed to be discussing Emma, but I thought we'd try something a bit more me instead."

Junior Reading Room

Five YA novels and a picture book are what's featured this week on Junior Reading Room. Cut out the coupon to enjoy a 20% discount at Kinokuniya Books.

Gene Wins!

The winner of the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award (which honours excellence in Young Adult fiction) is Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel American Born Chinese.

From the ALA website:

Yang draws from American pop culture and ancient Chinese mythology in his groundbreaking work. Expertly told in words and pictures, Yang’s story in three parts follows a Chinese American teenager’s struggle to define himself against racial stereotypes. “American Born Chinese” is the first graphic novel to be recognized by the Michael L. Printz Committee.

Yang, who began drawing comics in the fifth grade, is a high school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area. The annual award for literary excellence is administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA, and is sponsored by Booklist magazine. The award, first given in 2000, is named for the late Michael L. Printz, a Topeka, Kans., school librarian known for discovering and promoting quality books for young adults.

Reading Pictures

Kuniyoshi Utagawa 1798-1861
Woman Reading

KidzRead!: Witch Week

The plan is to discuss Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week this Sunday, 25th March, at about 430pm at MPH Bangsar Village II.

If you're a DWJ fan or even if you're not, do come along for a chat/gossip about this and other books.

It would be fab if you read Witch Week first, but it's not imperative you do.

At 4pm (same place), I'll be reading Oliver Jeffers's Lost and Found. All kids (of all ages) are most welcome to attend this session. See you there, I hope!